This is what I was thinking today.
This is a cow. She emits methane in burps and farts. Methane is a greenhouse gas – almost as bad as co2. One cow emits 100 kg (or 220 lb) of methane a year – but there are 1,5 billion of those, so the numbers are mind boggling. If we only could stop even small part of these emissions..
Welcome e-feed. It is a tiny capsule made of non-digestible cellulose fiber. It is covered with a selectively permeable membrane, which only lets methane in, but not out. These capsules are manufactured under low-pressure conditions and then coated with gelatin, to prevent them from reacting before needed.
Millions of these tiny grains are mixed in animal feed. When digested by the livestock, the gelatin layer dissolves and the low pressure inside of the grain sucks methane through the membrane and encapsulates it inside. It leaves the animal as part of the feces.
Not only will this reduce the methane emissions to atmosphere, but it will also make the manure have high energy content. This energy can be harvested for example in bio-fuel. It can provide a solid extra income to farmers especially in developing countries.
E-feed should not be a privilege of the rich countries. Governments should work together to make it available to all livestock farms. It is an easy and cheap way to slow down global warming and develop economy in poor countries.
Some background data:
https://cbmjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13021-017-0084-y
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1876610215026144
