On Tue, Jun 21, 2011 at 03:14:37PM +0930, Tony Russel wrote:
> When burnt doesn't methane become just carbon dioxide and water ? We should
> fit cattle and camels with afterburners and condensers.
Tony, your science is correct but don't expect to patent the concept we
already burn (flare) methane emissions from rubbish dumps & landfills
in some places where it is not practical to capture and use them.
Methane release into the atmosphere also finishes up as CO2+H20 over a
period of decades which is why methane is potent greenhouse gas only
on short timescales (our lifetimes). CO2 remains in the atmosphere
for centuries.
A herbivore doesn't have to release methane - its a consequence of the
microbial ecology in their gut. Laurie mentioned kangaroos produce little
methane. CSIRO and others have looked at changing (innoculating) the gut
flora in sheep&cattle to improve meat production & reduce methane emission.
Most birds have mucher simpler guts than ruminants and much lower methane
emissions - alhough somewhere in Canberra there are public servants
who should have been listening in biology class. Forced to estimate
emissions/kg from farmed ostriches&emus for our national greenhouse
inventory they assumed they were similar to cattle not poultry.
Andrew
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