Cow energyBurping for power: Tapping cow burps for natural gas

Scientists in Argentina have developed a method to transform the gas created by cows’ digestive systems into fuel.

The scientists say that in addition to harvesting energy which would otherwise go to waste, this approach would reduce the amount of greenhouse gas being emitted into the atmosphere.

The scientists separated methane from the smelly cow gas, and then use it to fuel cars and other machines.

The Daily Mail reports that Argentina’s National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA) came up with the idea of using a system of valves and pumps to collect and process the gas.

The technique channels the digestive gases from bovine stomach cavities through a tube and into a tank, where the gases, called eruptos (burps) in Spanish, are processed to separate methane from other gases such as carbon dioxide.

“Once you get [methane] compressed, it’s the same as having natural gas,” said Guillermo Berra, head of INTA’s animal physiology group.

“As an energy source it is not very practical at the moment, but if you look ahead to 2050, when fossil fuel reserves are going to be in trouble, it is an alternative,” Berra told Reuters.

A typical herd of cattle emits between 250 and 300 liters of pure methane a day, which is enough energy to keep a refrigerator running for twenty-four hours.

Argentina is one of the world’s top beef exporters, with around fifty-one million herds of cattle. INTA says that gases emitted from those animals account for 30 percent of the country’s total greenhouse gas emissions, with methane having twenty-three times the global warming effect as carbon dioxide.

“This is also a way to mitigate that,” Berra said.