{"id":399605,"date":"2021-06-01T07:11:31","date_gmt":"2021-06-01T05:11:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=399605"},"modified":"2021-06-01T07:13:28","modified_gmt":"2021-06-01T05:13:28","slug":"cows-to-get-high-tech-masks-which-absorb-methane-burps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/technology\/399605-cows-to-get-high-tech-masks-which-absorb-methane-burps.html","title":{"rendered":"Cows to get high-tech masks which absorb methane burps"},"content":{"rendered":"

Agriculture giant Cargill Inc. will start selling methane-absorbing wearable devices\u00a0for cows, putting its support behind an experimental technology that could help the industry cut greenhouse gas emissions.<\/p>\n

The mask-like accessory was\u00a0developed by U.K. startup Zelp Ltd., which claims\u00a0it can reduce methane emissions by more than half.<\/p>\n

Cargill said Tuesday it expects to start offering the devices to European dairy farmers in 2022. The companies haven’t set a price\u00a0yet, but Zelp says an annual subscription\u00a0fee may start at about $80 a cow.<\/p>\n

Tackling methane emissions from livestock is one of the most critical\u2014and most difficult\u2014climate issues for meat and dairy companies that are under increasing pressure to clean up their supply chains.<\/p>\n

Having access to Cargill\u2019s vast customer network could help Zelp secure demand as it prepares to roll out a product that\u2019s still under development.<\/p>\n

\u201cCargill has an impressive reach across dairy farms in Europe,\u201d said Zelp\u00a0Chief Executive Officer Francisco Norris.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are uniquely positioned to distribute our technology to a large number of clients, both farmers and dairy companies, maximizing the roll-out from the very first year we hit the market.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some 95% of methane released by cows comes out as burps and through the nose. The gas traps 80\u00a0times more heat than carbon dioxide in its first 25\u00a0years in the atmosphere.<\/p>\n

Zelp\u2019s wearables, placed above cows\u2019 mouths, act a bit like the catalytic converter on a car. A set of fans powered by solar-charged batteries sucks up the burps and traps them in a chamber with a methane-absorbing filter.<\/p>\n

Once the filter is saturated, a chemical reaction turns the methane\u00a0into CO\u2082, which is then released.<\/p>\n

Zelp is working on miniaturizing the technology and optimizing the energy inside the device, Norris said. It\u2019s in talks with a number of potential manufacturing partners and aims to be ready for mass production at the end of the year.<\/p>\n

It aims to produce 50,000 units in the first year\u00a0and as many as 200,000 units the next. The company is close to completing its next financing round, according to Norris.<\/p>\n

Cargill was attracted to the masks because they can be used in combination with other solutions, said\u00a0Sander van Zijderveld, the company\u2019s ruminant strategic marketing and technology lead for West Europe.<\/p>\n

Several food suppliers are testing or have begun using feed additives which inhibit microbes in cows\u2019 stomachs to help them produce less methane.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe nice thing about Zelp is that it could complement a cow that is already receiving feed additives to reduce methane emissions,\u201d he said. \u201cIt could still capture the methane that is coming out. We could reduce it even more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cargill expects the wearables to come on sale in the second half of next year after more testing, which will focus on animal behavior and the impact on methane reduction, and could expand the scheme outside Europe if demand is high.<\/p>\n

Zelp\u00a0is yet to prove to independent experts that the technology works. Norris said peer-reviewed studies will take place in the fourth quarter after the product has been fully optimized.<\/p>\n

Getting cash-strapped farmers to pay for new technologies has been the key challenge,\u00a0but that\u2019s changing, said van Zijderveld.<\/p>\n

He thinks incentives will increase, including more dairy processing companies that are willing to pay a premium for milk produced at farms that meet environmental and animal welfare standards.<\/p>\n

Farmers could also potentially recoup their costs by selling\u00a0carbon offsets<\/a><\/strong>, which other companies can buy to count against their own pollution.<\/p>\n

Cargill, based in\u00a0Minneapolis,\u00a0aims to cut emissions from its global supply chains by 30% by 2030. In North America, it targets a 30% greenhouse gas reduction in its regional beef supply chain by the end of the decade.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Now read: Fight against rhino poaching goes nuclear<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Agriculture giant Cargill Inc. will start selling methane-absorbing wearable devices\u00a0for cows, putting its support behind an experimental technology that could help the industry cut greenhouse gas emissions. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341034,"featured_media":399611,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[55183,41590,29454],"class_list":["post-399605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-agriculture","tag-climate-change","tag-farming"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399605"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341034"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399605"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":399615,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399605\/revisions\/399615"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}