Reducing methane emissions from slurry

Anew study has revealed some promising results in reducing methane emissions during the fermentation processes in livestock slurry, the ScienceDaily website recently reported.

In laboratory tests, researchers at the University of Bonn in Germany combined slurry from a farm with calcium cyanamide ( Š ƀǼǰȱa chemical that has been used as a fertiliser for more than 100 years, resulting in a

99% drop in methane production.

The effects of the Š ƀ started around one hour after the chemical had been added to the slurry and lasted for roughly six months. Felix Holtkamp, a doctoral student at the Institute of Crop Science and Resource Conservation at the university and one of the researchers on the study, said that the long-term effectiveness of the Š ƀ was crucial, as slurry couldn’t simply be discarded.

ScienceDaily reported that in most cases, slurry was stored until the beginning of the next growing season and then used as a fertiliser.

Therefore, storage was required for months at a time.

During this time, bacteria and fungi broke the slurry down into smaller and smaller molecules, with methane as the resultant by-product.

“Calcium cyanamide breaks this chain of chemical transformation, and does so simultaneously at different points, as we were able to see in the chemical analysis of the slurry treated accordingly,” explained Holtkamp.

“The substance suppresses the microbial degradation of short-chain fatty acids, an intermediate in the chain, and their conversion to methane. Exactly how this happens is still unknown.”