This Teenager Created a Solution to Fight Methane Emissions

"My solution consists of an engineered small form factor device called a fugitive emissions monitor, or FEM. And so this will wirelessly transmit data from the landfill to a dashboard using the cloud." 17-year-old Lavanya Natarajan built the device in her parents’ Florida garage before testing it at a local landfill. Methane is a major driver of climate change. It has 80 times more warming potential than CO2 over 20 years. Landfills are the planet’s third largest source of methane. Ideally, engineers dispose of the gas safely by pumping it away to be burned or used as fuel. But it’s difficult to measure, so pumping gets delayed and large quantities of ‘fugitive methane emissions’ escape undetected.