4 ms·
What's the mechanism behind methane reduction?
by 2_listerine_pls 7y ago
What's the mechanism behind methane reduction?
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- goodalgae 7y agoThe mechanism is mostly understood, but not perfectly. Most people know that a cow has multiple stomachs. The second stomach is called a rumen. A cow chews it's cud (essentially big mashes of grass and grain, which a stomach cannot digest). This cud is passed through the first stomach and into the rumen, which contains beneficial, digestive bacteria. The bacteria in the rumen essentially ferment the cud and make compounds which can be digested in the subsequent stomaches. Unfortunately, methane is a natural byproduct of this process. AT and a number of other algae contain very low amounts of a compound called bromoform. Bromoform in high amounts is toxic, but it's believed that bromoform in these trace amounts changes the chemical reaction being undertaken within the rumen such that methane is no longer a product. The result is a more efficient digestive process, essentially lending energy back to the cow. Easier digestion for cows seems to equal better health and immunity, increased length of heat, increased food conversion ratios and perhaps just happier cows. There is a possibility of interaction with additional trace nutrients and compounds in the algae as well, and this is being researched. Something to note is that AT is not the only algae that reduces methane production in cattle. It is just, by far, the most efficient. And algae is not the only product which decreases methane in cattle, as well. Companies are marketing probiotics and small molecule methane inhibitors which do similar jobs, but again, AT is nearly twice as effective.
- choeger 7y agoSo, essentially they are poisoning the cows ever so slightly?
- derefr 7y agoIn the sense that humans eating capsaicin are poisoning themselves slightly; and not the sense in which humans drinking alcohol are poisoning themselves slightly. It’s such a different order of magnitude that there’s a qualitative, not just quantitative, change in the body’s response.
- choeger 7y agoHmmkay, I was just wondering what the downsides are. After all, that sounds too good to be true.
- SubiculumCode 7y agoWhat about creating bromoform directly in a lab? Is that possible? If so, then direct application to the feed wouldnt require en massed sea farming.
- 2_listerine_pls 7y agoI was reading about it on wikipedia, it used to be produced in large quantities.
- thereisnospork 7y agoPretty trivial to do at both lab and industrial scales. I've no knowledge of the biology, but if bromoform is the active ingredient it could probably be produced at scale for on the order of a few thousand dollars per tonne(governed primarily by Br2 pricing[0]) then fairly easily doped into pellets or feed. [0] Maybe less using the haloform reaction. I'm not intimately familiar with the best-industrial manufacturing methods.
- stenl 7y agoSigma Aldrich sells a kilo of pure bromoform for about $300. I’m sure bulk bromoform is much cheaper.
- the8472 7y agoIn a paper on this topic this was tested and pure bromoform doesn't have the same effect, the authors speculate that is due to delayed release from the seaweed structures.
- goodalgae 7y agoMind dropping that link?
- the8472 7y agohttps://sci-hub.tw/10.1071/AN15576 https://sci-hub.tw/10.1071/AN15576 Looks like I slightly misremembered. They write that they don't observe a decline of inhibition compared to a previous paper using pure bromoform but don't speculate on the reason. Maybe the speculation was in commentary on that paper.
- jacobolus 7y agoHow well do people understand the difference between modern cow diets and the diets of say aurochs? What other nutrients are missing from modern feedlots?
- pinko 7y agoThis is a great question.
- jkettmann 7y agoVery interesting. This is probably not applicable in areas with melting permafrost, right? Aren't there also bacteria basically digesting ancient and previously frozen organic matter?
- tripzilch 7y agoI think the methane is already there (having been produced a long time ago), just under ground. I could be mistaken. But even then I'm not sure how those algae would help ...
- jkettmann 7y agoThere seems to be two sources of "frozen" methane. The one you're referring to is on the ground of the oceans kind of trapped in ice. The other one is organic matter inside permafrost on land. When this warms bacteria become active and decompose the organic matter releasing methane. It was only a naive relation I saw between the bacteria inside the cows stomach and the one in the permafrost ;-)
- tripzilch 7y agoTIL, thanks.