GHGSat’s group of satellites spotted pollution from palm oil mills in a dozen countries, the company reported in a recent press release.
The Montreal-based company provides greenhouse gas monitoring of methane and carbon dioxide through its 12 satellites, which are in sun-synchronous orbits at an altitude of roughly 500 km (slightly higher than the International Space Station, at roughly 400 km in altitude.)
The company’s demonstration satellite, nicknamed “Claire”, launched nearly 10 years ago in 2016. GHGSat now provides millions of measurements a year, on behalf of customers such as NASA, the European Space Agency and the United Nations. Key industries also include commercial enterprise and the financial sector to pinpoint and if possible, reduce emissions.
Now, the company has said that their satellites found more than 50 methane plumes at palm oil mills in the regions of South America, Asia, and Africa, showing “how the industry’s wastewater treatment process, POME ponds, is quietly emitting potent greenhouse gases.” This work is a follow-on from a more limited study that was published in Environmental Research Letters in October 2024.
Palm oil, a popular grocery store item, creates wastewater that the industry dubs POME – palm oil mill effluent. This wastewater remains in open ponds, where organic waste such as shells decomposes in a way similar to decaying landfill trash, according to GHGSat. Methane is offgassed, and that is how the company detects the emissions from space.
“The pond system was designed to curb local water contamination from releasing POME into the riverways and channels, but had an unintended impact,” GHGSat officials wrote.
GHGSat noted that palm oil does have the highest yield per hectare among vegetable oils like it, but concerns have been raised about deforestation and pollution. Still, palm oil is used widely: animal feed, biofuels and even toothpaste often contain it.
Sustainability standards are available to industry through the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, which establishes standards for growers ranging from improving workers’ rights, to combatting deforestation. Relevantly to GHGSat’s work, the roundtable also has a “PalmGHG calculator” aiming to help growers estimate greenhouse gas emissions.
What also must be weighed against the drawbacks of palm oil production, are the benefits for employment in remote areas: the roundtable says seven million smallholder farmers receive income from palm oil – primarily in Indonesia and Malaysia, which together produce 90% of palm oil around the world.
Stephane Germain, CEO of GHGSat, said in a statement that his company’s satellite constellation will allow the palm oil industry to – like others attempting to combat emissions – address an “opaque challenge.” He added: “Precise data is the first step toward action, and satellite technologies are a part of the puzzle.” Palm oil mill operators, for example, already can adopt practices that are more well-known from landfills: capturing gases, performing recycling or diverting waste, for example. Some landfills or municipalities may even convert methane to natural gas, to “sell back to local power grids or power on-site operations,” GHGSat added.
