AIRMO’s instrument successfully detected methane during a blind controlled release experiment at TotalEnergies’ TADI test platform
Berlin, Germany — 14.10.2025 — AIRMO, the climate-tech company delivering multi-platform methane quantification, announced today that its space instrument and data-processing pipeline have achieved Technology Readiness Level 6 (TRL-6) during a testing campaign at TotalEnergies’platform TADI. This milestone marks a critical step toward orbital deployment, while AIRMO’s airborne monitoring system has already achieved TRL-9, demonstrating full operational readiness.
From ground sensors and UAVs to crewed and uncrewed aircraft and future satellites, AIRMO builds a unified platform for accurate methane detection, quantification, and reporting.
In June 2025, AIRMO mounted its custom instrument — SWIR, a short-wave infrared sensor — on an aircraft flying 2 km above TotalEnergies TADI platform (TotalEnergies Anomalies Detection Initiatives) based on’ Lacq research site in France.
Over three days of undisclosed methane releases, the system demonstrated:
- Super precision: ground resolution of 1 m per pixel
- Exceptional sensitivity: successfully detected and quantified the smallest release of 12 kg/hour
- Accurate source localization: being able to pinpoint the source of the leak within the facility
“Achieving TRL-6 for our space payload validates our path to orbit in 2027,” said David Vilaseca, CTO of AIRMO. “With proven performance across ground, UAV (TRL-9), and airborne platforms, we now offer the energy sector and regulators a complete LDAR and OGMP 2.0-compliant methane quantification solution, soon to include borderless satellites. “The smallest controlled release we detected in validation was 12 kg/h, which is a strong result from 2 km altitude. This successful test demonstrates AIRMO’s ability to detect and quantify methane under real-world conditions, paving the way for broader deployment across airborne and future space-based monitoring systems."