When it comes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, any talk of cars is usually followed closely by talk of cows.
While the Canadian beef industry accounts for just 3.6 per cent of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions, thanks to the methane-heavy flatulence of cows fed forage diets, many believe a handful of changes in agricultural practice can take the industry from Humvee to hybrid.
Now, a UBC researcher is hoping to create a road map for a lighter-carbon agriculture sector in B.C.
Haoqi Wang, a PhD fellow in chemical and biological engineering, is looking at ways to better integrate use of emissions-heavy animal waste on B.C. farms
“We’re looking at dairy farms, which generate millions of tonnes of animal waste a year, which can cause a lot of environmental issues, not limited to greenhouse gas emissions,” Wang told Clean Capital. “My research is trying to integrate (animal waste) through waste exchange and waste-to-energy systems, and trying to reduce (the sector’s) environmental footprint.”
Currently, B.C.’s agriculture sector is relatively low carbon, contributing just 3.5 per cent of the province’s emissions. Wang pegged the sector’s Canada-wide emissions at 10 to 12 per cent.
Around the world, there have been plenty of headline-friendly efforts to reduce agriculture emissions by making cows less gassy. India, for example, is breeding smaller cows that pass gas less frequently, while animal antibiotics makers are creating products that limit a cow’s methane production.
Wang says the key to reducing emissions is integration of existing agriculture waste, especially how manure is stored.
“In B.C. as well as other provinces in Canada, manure is not allowed be applied to the land in the winter, so the manure has to be stored,” he said. “During storage, a large amount of methane can be released into the air.”
Wang and fellow researchers will look at ways of capturing that methane, including using an enclosed reactor to capture the gas for use as fuel.
That fuel can be used to heat greenhouses (B.C. is a major exporter of greenhouse-grown vegetables), a process that currently requires generators or grid electricity. Methane capture also leaves behind a nutrient-rich by-product called digestate that can be applied to fields during the spring.
Wang’s research will include a full economic and policy review to take into account existing disincentives for agricultural waste integration.
He points out that there’s plenty of energy in agriculture waste just waiting to be harvested, and ”people should make use of that.”
By Jonny Wakefield, June 9, 2016