Stories tagged methane
A mighty duke: and very powerful, although not a favorite at parties.
Courtesy Albedo-ukrSan Antonio has made a deal with the duke. A particularly mighty duke, too, and one that has often been overlooked, despite this duke’s ability to deliver great power.
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How convenient!: Jumpmeat, with a little pouch to hold more jumpmeat!
Courtesy .robbieY’all got kangaroo knives, right?
What? You don’t have kangaroo knives? Well… I mean… what… How do you cut your kangaroos up, then?! This is madness! Cats and dogs, living together! Ewok Adventure! Sour candy! Madness!
I think there must be some kind of misunderstanding. A kangaroo knife isn’t necessarily like a big Crocodil Dundee knife* (although, that is a really nice kangaroo knife). No, pretty much any sharpish object can be a kangaroo knife. So, yes, a knife can be a kangaroo knife, but what else? A chipped rock? Yes, what else? Sure, a jagged piece of scrap metal would make a nice one. Anything else? A sharpened spoon? Very good, yes, a sharpened spoon could work. A fingernail? Well, I suppose it depends on the finger and the nail, but maybe.
I think you’re getting the idea. But why do we need all of these kangaroo knives in the first place? To be honest, it’s probably only the Australian Buzzketeers out there (maybe?) that would have any use for them, but it doesn’t hurt for the rest of us to be prepared. See, a recent article in the journal Conservation Letters recommends that expanding the kangaroo industry in Australia, and shrinking the cattle and sheep industries, would significantly cut the continent’s greenhouse gas emissions. Specifically, growing the kangaroo population to 175 million by 2020 (and reducing the cattle and sheep populations proportionately) would eliminate 16 megatons of greenhouse gas, or 3 percent of Australia’s total emissions.
It’s not just any old greenhouse gas that would be cut, either—we’re talking about methane, one of the stinkiest, hottest, greenhousiest greenhouse gases of them all. Ruminants—animals that chew cud and have multi-chambered stomachs, like cows and sheep—produce a lot of methane, up to 60 percent of global methane emissions†. A dairy cow can produce about 50 gallons of methane gas a day! Kangaroos, on the other hand, produce only about one third of the methane of a ruminant animal does. And, as a little environmental bonus, kangaroos’ large, padded paws are much easier on the land than the hooves of ruminants, and contribute less to erosion.
But what are we supposed to do with all these millions of kangaroos? Eat them, naturally. (This is where the kangaroo knives come in!) Kangaroo meat is reportedly high in protein, low in fat, and it has high concentrations of conjugated linoleic acid (a chemical that seems to have anti-cancer properties, and tends to reduce body fat in humans). But, you know, it’s kangaroo meat, which some people may have a problem with**.
It’s difficult to say, too, what the other environmental ramifications of increasing one animal’s population dozens of times over might be. Maybe the kangaroos could be trained to eat rabbits, or something.
Assuming y’all had some kangaroo knives, do you think you could deal with eating kangaroo? You know, for nature?
*Doesn’t Paul Hogan look like he’s about to do something just awful to Manhattan there?
†The EPA’s website says that ruminants only account for 28% of global methane emissions. But that’ still a lot.
**The kangaroo meat industry actually held a competition to come up with a new name for the meat that didn’t conjure up images of doe-eyes and fuzzy little faces. The finalists included kangarly, maroo, krou, maleen, kuja, roujoe, rooviande, jurru, ozru, marsu, kangasaurus, marsupan, jumpmeat, and MOM (meat of marsupials), but the winning name ended up being “australus.” Australus was for sure not the best name. The best name was “jumpmeat.”
As Midwest flooding and rising demand for ethanol pushes the price of corn ever higher, Cornell researcher Norman Uphoff is developing a new way to grow rice. His method produces more grain to feed more people; uses less water; and releases less greenhouse gas into the atmosphere.
The face of the enemy: Know it well. They wait, biding their time, building up the strength of their numbers, and of their horrible, secret weapon of doom!
Courtesy foxypar4
That’s sheep farts to you and me, and apparently it’s a major problem. There are over one billion sheep in the world. They spend their day, standing in the meadow, gamboling playfully, watching Sam, the big shaggy cartoon sheep dog, foil the ingenious but inevitably futile efforts of Ralph, the wolf who looks suspiciously like a coyote.
And eating. Grass is what sheep eat. Unfortunately, they can’t digest it. Instead, they have little tiny microbes in their stomachs (four stomachs per sheep) that break down the plant fiber for them.
Unfortunately, microbes are rude little creatures, emitting methane gas with every mouthful and nary an “excuse me” to be heard. The methane builds up inside the ovine until it escapes in the form of sheep farts. (And, seriously, if you ever have a chance to write an essay that can justifiably include the phrase “sheep farts,” then you should seize the opportunity and use the term just as often as you possibly can.)
Anyway, the methane (a.k.a. sheep farts) gets into the atmosphere where, some would have it, it will trap heat and warm the globe and eventually destroy civilization as we know it. This may or may not be a bad thing, but I personally would hate to see my home destroyed just because of sheep farts.
Fortunately some researchers in New Zealand have come to our rescue. These plucky kiwis are tackling the sheep fart menace head-on, trying to develop a vaccination that will improve the microbes’ table manners. An anxious world holds its breath – partly in anticipation of the coming breakthrough in sheep fart technology, but mostly in response to the sheep farts themselves.
Methane ice
in Earth Structure and Processes, Structure of Matter, and Energy Transformations
Burning methane hydrate
Courtesy United States Geological Survey
What is Methane ice?
Huge amounts of methane are being found on the ocean floor, trapped within cages of water molecules.
Methane clathrate, also called methane hydrate or methane ice, is a solid form of water that contains a large amount of methane within its crystal structure (a clathrate hydrate). wikipedia
Geologists estimate that significantly more hydrocarbons are bound in the form of methane hydrate than in all known reserves of coal, natural gas and oil combined. India and China plan to spend hundreds of millions of dollars learning how to tap into this huge reservoir of energy (Spiegel online).
Carbon curse or cure
Relying on this carbon based energy instead of renewable energy sources could worsen global warming by releasing more greenhouse gases. To be carbon neutral the carbon dioxide from burning carbon fuels needs to be captured and sequestered (locked up). Harvesting methane ice offers just this opportunity.
When a certain amount of pressure is applied to the cage-like crystal structure, carbon dioxide can penetrate the layer of ice, at which point it displaces the methane. Then a new cage of frozen water molecules forms around the carbon dioxide. Klaus Wallmann, Uni Kiel
Wallman is also impressed by the ratio at which the gases are exchanged. For each dissolved molecule of methane released, up to five molecules of carbon dioxide disappear into the ice cage. Wallmann hopes to see, in the not-too-distant future, tankers filled with CO2 heading out to sea to pump their climate-damaging cargo into the depths.
You might also read about research being done at Columbia University, "Carbon Neutral Methane Production Via Hydrates".
New fossil evidence indicates that the ancestors of modern kangaroos walked on four legs, had fangs and climbed trees -- a sobering thought. Meanwhile, scientists studying marsupial flatulence have discovered that kangaroo gas contains no methane, and thus does not contribute to greenhouse gasses. A spokesman for kangaroos said he was glad no kangaroos were involved in changing the Earth's climate.
Excuse me: British scientists are looking for less gassy diet options for cows to reduce their burps. Cows belch 25 to 50 gallons of methane a day, which contributes to global warming. (flickr photo courtesy of Denmar)Don’t you just hate it when cows burp?
Scientists working on global warming and climate change hate it just as much as we do and are doing something about it. They’re working on developing new diets for cows that will cut back on their burps and the amount of methane they’re expelling into the atmosphere.
The average cow belches out 25 to 50 gallons of methane each day. Methane is a greenhouse gas that contributes to the growing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere that fuel global warming.
So what’s a polite, green-friendly cow to eat these days and reduce global warming? Scientists in Great Britain are proposing simpler digestibles like legumes – such as clover and alfalfa – could reduce cows’ belching significantly. The researchers also say that more grasses could be bred that would be easier for cows to process.
There’s good news for the very impolite cows. The scientists have also determined that methane is released into the air through cow burps, not the gas emissions they make from the other end of their body. They don’t have to strike baked beans from their diet!
Permafrost polygons: Permafrost is rapidly melting away, releasing methane, and carbon dioxide into the Earth's atmosphere. Photo courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey.
Greenhouse gases that have been trapped in frozen permafrost are being released from the melting soil much faster than was previously thought. The most notable one of these gases is methane, which is being released into the atmosphere at a rate 5 times greater than was previously thought.
Methane is an effective heat trapping agent, it is 23 times more powerful at trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. It is practically harmless when it is frozen in permafrost.
Permafrost is ground that has consistently been at a temperature of zero degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit) for two or more years. Permafrost occurs in regions of Arctic climates, such as the tundra of Alaska, northern Canada, and Siberia. Unfortunately, when these frozen climates get too warm, the trapped atmospheric gases are released. Unfortunately, this is now happening too frequently due to global warming.
The release of methane from melting permafrost speeds up the global warming process. The current warming of the earth causes the permafrost to melt, which causes methane and carbon dioxide to be released into the atmosphere, which causes more warming. It’s a horrible cycle and scientists are worried that it will eventually go out of control, setting off a “climate time bomb.”
Scientists are unsure whether or not methane or carbon dioxide is the worst greenhouse gas. While methane traps more heat, it only lingers in the atmosphere for around 10 years. Carbon dioxide traps less heat, but it typically remains in the atmosphere for a century. Neither of these gases is good.
Sounds like quite the problem. What do you think we can do about it?
Cow Power: photo by Art Oglesby, Cow manure can produce electricity.
What comes out of the back end of a cow?
Milk and manure. The cows at the Audet family's Blue Spruce Farm make almost 9,000 gallons of milk a day — and about 35,000 gallons of manure. With the help of their power company, Central Vermont Public Service Corp., the Audets have devised a way to extract methane from the manure and pipe it to a generator. They make enough electricity to power 300 to 400 average Vermont homes.
How can electricity be made from cow manure?
If cow manure is pushed into a long, narrow tank and held around 100 degrees, in about 20 days bacteria will digest the manure into methane gas and a liquid slurry. The methane can run an engine and generator to make electricity. A dry, odor-free, fluffy brown substance that is used as bedding for the cows can also be extracted. The remaining liquid contains enough nutrients that it can be used as fertilizer for the farm's feed crops.
Do farms in Minnesota make electricity from manure?
Since late 1999, the Haubenschild farm has been converting their cow manure into electricity. At first they, too, digested manure producing methane which fueled a generator to produce electricity. Then, on Jan. 27, 2005, for the first time anywhere in the world, the methane was fed into a fuel cell.
A fuel cell is like a battery. A chemical reaction generates the electricity. It is totally quiet, and the only waste product is clean water. Haubenschild said it costs 5.1 cents per kilowatt hour to produce electricity from the fuel cell and Great River Energy will buy the surplus electricity from the fuel cell for four cents per KWH. If Minnesota power companies can create a progam similar to Vermont's Cow power program, customers willing to pay a couple extra cents per KWH would allow farmers to make money instead of losing money.
What are the benefits of anaerobic digestion?
- Reduced odor and greenhouse gas emissions
Fewer pathogens in the digested product
Nutrient rich effluent to apply to crops
Electricity to use and to sell
Possible sale of separated solids as a garden amendment
Good manure management
Pay back on the investment
Read more about Cow power
Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Department, Univ. of MN.
Princeton Union-Eagle
Pioneer Press
FAQ about CVPS Cow Power
Scientists at the Max Plank Institute in Germany have discovered that living trees are a major source of methane in the Earth's atmosphere. Methane is a major "greenhouse gas," implicated in global warming.
Trees and sun: Trees and sun
Before this study, scientists thought plants only released small amounts of methane, and then only when they decomposed (as in swamps). The new research shows that plants release methane throughout their lives, and in large amounts—up to 30% or more of the planet's total methane production may come from plants.
This forces us to re-think environmental efforts. Strategies for dealing with climate change, such as the Kyoto Protocols, often call for planting more trees. And it's true that trees do take a lot of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere—the most prevalent greenhouse gas. But now it turns out trees also release methane, so their benefit is not quite as great as once thought.
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