Swiss climate tech start-up Sixteen44 is preparing to take a pivotal step in its commercial journey, announcing plans to deploy its first operational field unit at a farm in Switzerland.
The pilot marks the company’s transition from laboratory validation to testing under real-world agricultural conditions. Over several days, the company will deploy its proprietary hardware to demonstrate its advanced oxidation process, designed to remove methane emissions directly from livestock environments – without any intervention on the animals themselves.
From lab breakthrough to farm test
For Sixteen44, the objective is to prove that its technology can work reliably in the messy, variable conditions of a working farm.
“Deploying our first field unit is a critical milestone in proving our point-source technology,” said co-founder William Ramsay. “By demonstrating that we can eliminate these emissions on-site with minimal energy and zero disruption to daily farm operations, we show a clear path toward reducing methane emissions.”
Targeting a stubborn emissions source
Methane from enteric fermentation – the digestive process in cattle – is one of agriculture’s most persistent climate challenges. The gas is around 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period, yet notoriously difficult to mitigate.
The challenge lies in its form. Unlike concentrated industrial emissions, livestock methane is diffuse, highly diluted and released directly into open air, making it both non-flammable and effectively impossible to capture using traditional technologies such as flaring.
Sixteen44’s core claim is that it has engineered a system specifically for these conditions.
A ‘world-first’ approach to dilute methane
The company’s plug-and-play unit operates at low temperatures and is designed to treat air streams containing low concentrations of methane. Instead of capturing and storing the gas, the system chemically converts methane into water vapour and CO₂ – a transformation Sixteen44 says results in a 97% reduction in overall warming impact.
“Livestock emissions represent the exact type of dilute, non-flammable methane that current industrial solutions cannot touch,” said Ramsay.
According to the company, the technology is unique in that it can operate at methane concentrations that make up more than two-thirds of global emissions but have so far remained largely beyond the reach of mitigation technologies. In addition to agriculture, Sixteen44 is targeting similar “hotspots” such as landfills and coal mines.
Proving it works on farm
A key focus of the field trial will be validating performance and measurement under open-air farming conditions – an area where many mitigation technologies struggle.
CEO Jan Christoph Bohnerth told AgNavigator the company measures methane destruction continuously within the reactor, comparing inlet and outlet concentrations using on-board analysers. This data, he said, is independently validated through third-party audits.
The aim is to demonstrate not just lab-grade efficiency, but credible, verifiable performance in situ – something that will be critical for both customers and carbon markets.
Designed for real-world scalability
One of the biggest questions facing methane mitigation technologies is scalability, particularly given the diffuse and continuous nature of livestock emissions.
Sixteen44’s answer is to focus on controlled environments rather than open pasture systems. Its model targets indoor dairy barns and confined livestock housing, where ventilation systems can be leveraged to route air through its reactors.
Rather than requiring multiple units per animal, Bohnerth said a typical commercial farm would need just one or two centralised modular systems connected to existing air extraction infrastructure.
“This point-source approach scales by targeting indoor dairy barns and confined livestock housing rather than open pastures,” he said.
The company adds that costs are already comparable to direct air capture (DAC) technologies, and are expected to fall as deployment scales.
Building a commercial model around carbon
The field demonstration also underpins Sixteen44’s broader commercial strategy, which hinges in part on carbon finance.
The company plans to partner with agricultural asset owners and offer revenue-sharing models based on carbon credits, helping to offset the upfront cost of deploying its systems.
Bohnerth argues methane’s status as a “super pollutant” – combined with the permanence of its destruction – makes it particularly attractive to carbon registries and verifiers.
“As we destroy methane, there is no pathway to undo that,” he said, pointing to real-time monitoring data and increasing availability of satellite verification as strengthening the credibility of credits generated.
However, the model is not solely reliant on voluntary carbon markets. Sixteen44 also positions its technology as a future compliance tool, particularly as governments and supply chains tighten emissions requirements.
“Apart from carbon credits, our solution becomes an indispensable ‘license to operate’ for asset owners needing to avoid incoming government penalties and strict supply-chain mandates,” Bohnerth said.
Betting on real-world impact
Founded in 2025, Sixteen44 has set an ambitious target: removing one million tonnes of methane by 2035 – more than double the equivalent of Switzerland’s annual CO₂ footprint.
That ambition now hinges on whether its technology can deliver outside controlled lab environments.
If the Swiss field deployment proves successful, it could mark an important step toward addressing one of agriculture’s most intractable emissions challenges – by tackling methane directly in the air farmers and livestock already share.
