A new collaboration between scientists, engineers, industry and farming experts hopes to demonstrate how technology can reduce the ‘powerful greenhouse gases’ released by livestock to help agriculture reach carbon emissions targets. Methane, released when livestock‘ belch and pass wind’ is about ‘30-times as effective as carbon dioxide in trapping heat over a 100-year timescale’.

The methane released by animals such as cows accounts for about 50% of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and represents a major barrier for the farming sector to meet ‘net zero’ targets. The new project, a collaboration between Durham University, sustainable technologies company Johnson Matthey, University of Nottingham and NFU Energy, will test the feasibility of catalytic equipment to safely decompose methane in barn air, where it is most concentrated, and preventing it from being released into the wider atmosphere.

The £250,000 project, partly funded by UKRI’s (UK Research and Innovation) Farming Innovation Pathways funding grants, will build on existing technology and look specifically at how to adapt this to the agricultural sector. If successful, the team hopes that this could pave the way for a new “farm-ready” technology that could have a significant impact on reducing the greenhouse gas emissions of livestock farming.

Simon Beaumont, associate professor in chemistry at Durham University, said: “Methane from livestock — or ‘moothane’ — accounts for about 50% of greenhouse gas emissions from the agricultural sector, and around one third of this is released indoors. So, while ‘moothane’ is a significant challenge for the farming industry, there is also a real opportunity to solve this challenge and in doing so, help this industry take a big step towards carbon-reduction.”

Methane-catalyst technology
The project brings together experts from academia and industry to take a multidisciplinary approach to tackling the ‘moothane’ problem. Johnson Matthey has existing methane-catalyst technology for use within underground mining operations, which they hope to re-configure through this project to help address the needs of the livestock farming industry.

The concentration of methane emitted in the ventilation air from mines is low, typically less than 1%, which makes performing any useful chemistry challenging. The concentration of methane in dairy barns is even lower than air from mines, presenting even greater technical challenges.

Andrew Scullard, principal scientist at Johnson Matthey, said: “Emissions associated with the production of beef and dairy products are too great to be ignored as the world moves towards ‘net zero’. To make an impact, we need to find how we can reduce the associated methane from cows burping. Contrary to popular belief, most methane does not come from the back end of livestock.”

Durham University’s departments of Chemistry and Engineering will be leading on testing the catalysts within the existing technology, to understand if it can work in cattle barns where the methane in the air is very diluted. The University’s experts will also investigate what impact other variables, such as barn design, time of year and other components in barn air, may have.

Experts from the University of Nottingham will assess the financial viability and overall climate impacts of deploying catalytic technologies to manage livestock methane emissions in the UK. The hope is that by combining expertise from industry and academia, this project will help accelerate progress towards a potential solution that can be easily deployed by farmers to help reduce the climate impacts of livestock farming.