Articles tagged with: Ruminants
Posted in Animals, Earth, Efficiency, Energy, Environment on 26 July 2008
Cow power could emerge as one of the green and renewable energy sources to generate electricity in future. Till now the manure produced by bovine and livestock animals has been used in farms only (that too to a certain extent). But now, it can be used to generate electricity which might meet upto 3 % energy (read electricity) consumption needs of entire North America!
The research being conducted by scientists at University of Texas (Austin) believe the results of it will imply on all countries with a large number of livestock (including India). Production of biogas from cow dung is not a new thing and it has been used in rural India to cook food and for other heating purposes. But this research stresses upon the anaerobic digestion (a process which helps in compost formation) of manure which yields energy-rich bio-gas potent enough to generate electricity by rotating standard microturbines.
In recent times, the interest and efforts in analyzing and using cow waste for studying its effect on climate change, has seen an upward trend. The IPCC reports that nitrous oxide and methane (both are Green House Gases) produced by naturally decomposing livestock manure heat up our atmosphere many times more than what CO2 does! Hence, the panel recommends proper utilization of this livestock manure. The latter if utilized fully could generate approximately 100 billion kilowatt hours of electricity (a scenario where the Americans will thank cows profusely for providing resources beyond milk and meat!)
Posted in Global warming on 10 July 2008
While scientists and governmental experts worldover are busy in figuring out ways to effectively reduce Global warming, their Argentinean counterparts have embarked on a unique study that critically examines a cow’s fart! This isn’t a bizarre-science expedition but a serious study by researchers, who are trying to understand (clearly) the link between gas produced by cows + other bovine species, global warming and climate change.
A lot of hue and cry has revolved around C02 – the greenhouse gas which is considered to be the culprit behind soaring temperatures around the globe. But now, a beginning is made to understand the role of other GHGs like methane in global warming. A cow’s sluggish digestive system results in a lot of gas (methane) being expelled from it’ behind.
Scientists in Argentina thus collected cow farts in plastic tanks attached to their backs and examined the gas composition. It was revealed in this attempt that more than 30 per cent of the country’s total greenhouse emissions consist of methane from these ruminants. It is a startling fact as Argentina tops the list of biggest beef producing countries with more than 55 million cows grazing in its famed Pampas grasslands. Even more startling is the figure found out by Guillermo Berra, a researcher at the National Institute of Agricultural Technology. According to him every cow produces 800 to 1,000 litres of emissions every day! I’m wondering if calculated for our Indian Cows what an astronomical figure it would be?