New Artificial Lightning Technology Stops Cow Dung from Releasing Climate-Warming Methane

The Norwegian business N2 is experimenting with an ablation system to reduce methane leaks, with Dairy cattle at a station in Buckinghamshire, England.

A Norwegian software firm has discovered a means to prevent methane leaks from animal sludge by immobilizing it with synthetic electricity.

Methane is a powerful environmental gas released by factors such as leaking carbon fuels installations, wastes, and animal rearing.

The Innovative Artificial Lightning Technology

N2 Advanced, located in Oslo, is researching their ablation system at many locations around Europe, particularly three farmlands in the United Kingdom.

"In principle, we're utilizing electricity to zap cattle waste and trap in dangerous pollutants," N2's Chris Puttick said at one of the trial sites in Buckinghamshire, England, to Reporters.

At this location, 200 dairy cattle provide the feedstock known as manure.

A dung brawler takes all feces from the stable surface and places it in a trench, where it is subsequently processed by the N2 engine, which is located in a benchmark wooden crate.

Nitrogen from atmosphere and a plasma flame discharge of 50 kilowatts are blasted into the sludge, 'keeping in' mixed methane and ammonia leaks.

Putter explained that, "Once we inject nitrogen from the atmosphere to the sludge, it alters the atmosphere to practically prevent metabolic activity."

"It decreases the pH drop with just under six and we're detecting it earlier, so it prevents the disintegration of those gas microorganisms that then unleash the methane to the atmosphere."

The device creates an unscented brown liquid known as NEO - Nitrogen Enriched Organic manure.

N2 claims that its NEO has twice the amount of carbon of ordinary.

According to Puttick, laboratory review demonstrate that their technique eliminates methane leaks from sludge by 99 percent. It also reduces ammonia emissions by 95%, which the EU considers to be one of the major causes of health-damaging due to air pollution.

This corresponds to "a decrease of 199 tons of coal comparable per year with one device" on a 200-cow cattle ranch, according to Puttick, who added that they're now trying to expand up the innovation throughout the UK cattle industry and have just put it at a poultry farm.

Methane Emission and Its Effect on Climate Change

A commercialized iteration of the gadget is set to be released in June 2022 in a flexible "stackable" format, allowing larger plantations to install equipment to handle their slurry production. Actual cost is still to be released, but Puttick estimates that the expenditure for a farmland will be comparable to that of an intermediate vehicle.

N2 Application has accepted donations from the European Union's Horizon 2020 technology and development initiative of over 17 million euros or about US $19.2 million.

The International Methane Commitment, announced in November during the COP26 meeting in Glasgow, promised to decreasing methane emissions by 30% by the year 2030.

Methane has a stronger thermal capacity than CO2, but it degrades quicker in the environment, so drastic cutbacks in methane levels by 2030 might have a significant influence on reducing climate change.

According to UN research released in May, drastic reductions in methane leaks this decade might prevent approximately 0.3 °C of climate change by the 2040s.