Methane-Eating Bacteria Could Combat Global Warming

realwx writes "New Zealand scientists have found a bacterium, named 'Methylokorus infernorum,' that eats a key global warming chemical. Found in a hot spring, the bug lives off of methane emissions from geothermically active areas. A scientist quoted in the article stated that a cubic meter of liquid containing the bacterium would consume about 11kg of methane each year. 'But Dr Stott cautioned that such an application was probably some years into the future. He said it was unlikely the micro-organism, which prefers acidic conditions of about 60C, could ever be added to sheep or cows' food to stop the animals releasing methane.'"

Comments

Re:Just burn it?

[BlueParrot]

Cows and sheep isn't the only thing emitting methane. Landfills emit it en-masse. Pretty much anywhere you have organic material decomposing without a ready access of oxygen you get methane.

Re:A Cows Stomach

[swebster]

Human body temperature: 37C

Cow body temperature: 38.6C

Re:Just burn it?

[DigiShaman]

All of the landfills I've visted in and around the Houston area have methane capture power generation. It's a standard thing to have in place from what I hear.

Feeding to cattle

[bjbest]

More efficent and easier to mix monensin into cattle feed, as has been done since the early '60s. An antibiotic sold under the tradename "rumensin", it is available as a component of supplemental vitamin/mineral feed mix; available by the bag or by the truckload at your local farm supply outlet. In a cow's stomach, it blocks the digestive microbes from breaking down corn sugar molecules into molecules of acetic acid, cardon dioxide and methane, instead keeping it all as one bigger acid molecule so the body can use all the carbon to bulk up. Otherwise, the gaseous CO2 and CH4 released would just be farted away and wasted. Young cattle can gain more weight with less forage, less greenhouse gases emitted, and as a bonus the antibiotic protects the animal against a few diseases.

Re:Just burn it?

[LadyLucky]

And precisely how to you anticipate collecting methane from cows (burps, not farts)?

This is highly relevant for New Zealand as 50% of our greenhouse gas emissions are in fact from cow methane.

Re:here's a shocker

[mrdaveb]

Trees only absorb CO2 to build more tree - they don't destroy it or use it as fuel or some other nonsense that people seem to believe.

Grow a tree and you have removed carbon from the atmosphere. Burn it down and you have put it back again

Re:Just burn it?

[TheRaven64]

Methane has a much greater effect on the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, I'm told. If you burn methane, however, you get carbon dioxide and water, so it seems that the solution to the problem is to collect and burn the methane. For bonus points, you also get energy.

As I see it, the problem is that the cycle is carbon dioxide to long chain hydrocarbons in plants then animals to methane. If you burn the methane, you create a closed cycle, which has no net effect on the atmosphere (you put back the same amount of carbon dioxide you remove). Sequestering methane makes a lot less sense than sequestering carbon dioxide, since you can't easily get energy out of carbon dioxide.

Re:here's a shocker

[TheRaven64]

Plants releasing CO2? That defies basic biology. No it doesn't. All plants respire. They convert sugars (and starch) and oxygen to carbon dioxide and water. During the day, they also convert carbon dioxide and water to sugar (then starch) and oxygen. Photosynthesis is just a way of storing the chemicals they need for respiration. If they are not getting enough sunlight, then they will emit more carbon dioxide than they consume.

The real problem is when they decompose and turn carbon dioxide (which they sequestered) into methane.