New field trial data on Romaine lettuce shows that organic fertilizer made from microbes that eat waste methane from farms and landfill sites delivers \u201csignificantly higher yield\u201d than conventional feather meal.<\/p>\n
The trial, conducted by Ag Metrics Group<\/a>, found that Windfall Bio<\/a>\u2019s FOUNDATION<\/a> organic fertilizer increased lettuce yields by 23\u201334% over feather meal and performed as well as pricier soy hydrolysates.<\/p>\n Additional trials on tomatoes, broccoli, spinach, and cold-season lettuce are now underway to demonstrate the fertilizer\u2019s broader market potential.<\/p>\n The data show that \u201clandfill owners can make more money from their gas and farmers have a cheaper, better, local source of fertilizer,\u201d Windfall Bio cofounder Josh Silverman, PhD, tells AgFunderNews<\/em>.<\/p>\n Right now, waste methane produced by manure lagoons, waste management sites or landfills is either released directly into the atmosphere, flared off, or turned into renewable natural gas (RNG) or electricity, says Silverman.<\/p>\n While the latter options were popular a few years ago as a means of generating value from waste, the economics are now far less favorable, he claims.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are very dependent on subsidies. RNG, for example, was driven almost entirely by LCFS [low carbon fuel standard] subsidies and electricity was driven by renewable electricity credits.<\/p>\n \u201cNow, with the increase of solar and wind, the price of renewable electricity has dropped dramatically, and many people who were turning methane into electricity have turned off their generators because it doesn\u2019t make the money anymore.<\/p>\n \u201cWe said, can we do something better with the methane than just releasing it or burning it?\u201d<\/p>\n Silverman co-founded\u00a0gas fermentation<\/a> firm Calysta, which harnesses methane-eating microbes to make high-protein animal feed and petfood, so knows a thing or two about methanotrophs. He has spent the last three years optimizing communities of soil bacteria that naturally convert methane into energy and pull nitrogen from the atmosphere.<\/p>\n These non-GMO bugs\u2014which San Mateo, California-based Windfall Bio has adapted for industrial use via continuous evolution\u2014are supplied to farmers or landfill sites, who put them in tanks, pipe in biogas, and end up with nitrogen-rich fertilizer.<\/p>\n At landfill sites, which produce far more methane, the tanks contain liquid. The contents can then be shipped as a liquid fertilizer to local farms or dried and pelletized. Windfall Bio commits to offtake agreements, guaranteeing to buy the fertilizer produced at a fixed price. It then works with distributors such as Wilbur Ellis to get the product (FOUNDATION) to farmers.<\/p>\n At dairy farms, farmers typically position a tank next to a dairy barn, anaerobic digester or covered manure lagoon, load it with some compost or biochar and then add the Windfall\u2019s microbes. The enriched compost\/biochar can then be spread on their land (dairy farmers often grow crops such as alfalfa to feed their cattle), enabling them to cut fertilizer bills, claims Silverman.<\/p>\n \u201cNow landfill owners can make more money from their gas and farmers have a cheaper, better, local source of fertilizer.\u201d<\/p>\n As for monetizing methane reduction itself, he says, some customers are interested in generating carbon credits, but Windfall is not banking on that to build a business. \u201cIf there is a carbon credit available, that basically just increases the profitability of the system.\u201d<\/p>\n The system is easy to set up and does not require partners to invest in pricey new kit, claims Silverman, who says Windfall has raised $37 million from backers including Prelude Ventures<\/a> and Amazon\u2019s Climate Pledge Fund<\/a> and is now raising a Series B round.<\/p>\n \u201cYou just need a container that holds the microbes and makes sure they have contact with the methane. So on a dairy farm, the reactor can be a big plastic tub full of compost or biochar. We\u2019re not talking about multi-million-dollar steel reactors.<\/p>\n \u201cIf they have a manure lagoon, they need to put a cover over the lagoon and just add a pipe and a blower to push the gas into the container.\u201d<\/p>\n He adds: \u201cCompost or biochar work well [to seed the microbes on]. It\u2019s a surface area versus flow rate question. One of the things we\u2019ve heard from a lot of producers is that biochar has lots of carbon, but no nitrogen, so most farmers don\u2019t really value it as a soil amendment. We are adding nitrogen to the biochar so the farmer has a reason to put it on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n In a landfill site, he says, \u201cYou don\u2019t want to truck compost or biochar into a tank, so in those cases, we grow the cells in liquid to produce our FOUNDATION fertilizer, which is more concentrated.\u201d<\/p>\n In the on-farm scenario, Windfall Bio provides a monitoring service, which tells farmers when they need to harvest the material from the tank. In the landfill scenario, it operates a continuous process, he says. \u201cWe are feeding the gas in and then harvesting continuously.\u201d Windfall is now fine-tuning the formulation to ensure it doesn\u2019t clog irrigation pipes.<\/p>\n According to Windfall, the water-soluble fertilizer:<\/p>\n The microbes, which are produced by co-manufacturers, can be shipped as dry powder that can be rehydrated on site, or in liquid form, much like baker\u2019s yeast, says Silverman. \u201cThey\u2019re pretty robust. We\u2019ve shown stability past 50 degrees celsius and we\u2019ve shown that they can be frozen and thawed.\u201d<\/p>\n From an IP perspective, he says, \u201cYou can\u2019t patent naturally occurring microbes, but we have patents on the proprietary consortia of microbes that we use along with the method of putting them into a reactor system and using it to capture methane and turn it into fertilizer. We also have patents around the end product and its uses.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Silverman, who founded Windfall in 2022 with Carla Risso, Ph.D, and\u00a0Louis Stenmark: \u201cWe have had a large outpouring of customer interest globally. Everyone would like to make money from waste methane. Billions of cubic meters of methane are being flared or vented every year and 95% of people [that produce it] can\u2019t do anything [profitable] with it.\u201d<\/p>\n Windfall has recently announced a partnership with Sunshine Canyon<\/a> landfill in Southern California and has been working with several other partners that have not yet been named, he says. \u201cWe\u2019re also working on a large waste management project we should be ready to announce relatively soon.\u201d<\/p>\n On the farming side, Windfall has recently completed a successful pilot with Straus Family Creamery,<\/a> which says it is now \u201cevaluating further opportunities to deploy this technology throughout our network of organic dairy farm suppliers.\u201d<\/p>\n Initially, Windfall Bio is aiming to enter the market at price parity with competitive products, says Silverman. \u201cBut over time, as the performance is proven to the farmers, we expect the market will pay a premium. Not a green premium, no one will pay for that, but a performance premium.\u201d<\/p>\n Further reading:<\/strong><\/p>\n Nitricity bags $50m to meet surging demand for organic fertilizer from upcycled almond shells<\/a><\/p>\n Bluemethane deploys first production-scale methane-capture unit at biogas plant<\/a><\/p>\nWhy it matters<\/strong><\/h4>\n
![\"Windfall\u2019s](\"https:\/\/agfundernews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Manure-lagoon-at-feedlot-iStock-Aaron-Yoder.jpg\")
How it works<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Easy on-site integration<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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![\"Image](\"https:\/\/agfundernews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Windfall-Bio-Image-credit-Windfall-Bio.jpg\")
The IP stack<\/strong><\/h4>\n
The market opportunity<\/strong><\/h4>\n