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Cow Farts


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#1 Adriaan

Adriaan

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Posted 07 June 2006 - 10:38 AM

Cow farts?!?

Well yes, bovine flatulance does add to the greenhouse effect, in fact some areas have more greenhouse gasses from this source than from burning fuels.

Apparently kangaroos do NOT fart and there is serious research into ways to make cattle (sheep, mainly) non flatulent ;

Dr Athol Klieve is a senior research scientist in microbial biotechnology at the DPI, "When you ferment grass in the stomach like kangaroos do, they produce hydrogen, and you have to get rid of that hydrogen, or it slows down and stops the fermentation of the material...The production of methane is actually one solution to the problem of getting rid of hydrogen...There are alternative mechanisms of getting rid of that of that hydrogen. One of these is to produce acetate. Acetate is used by the animal as a major part of its energy resources.

Needless to say human flatulence counts as noxious greenhouse gas. On the topic of such emissions; wastewater treatment facilities now often use fermentors to obtain combustible gasses from waste water (sewage) which helps lower the energy demand of such installations AND make the waste water less polluting. Technology does not yet exist to harness the energy of such gasses at the source, nor would it be entirely practical to collect them at the source for later use / treatment (one imagines a gas balloon attached to the rear end of cattle AND humans with some amusement).