Methane released by cows as a result of their digestive processes is a problem. It accounts for 25% of all methane emissions, and methane happens to be one of the worst greenhouse gases. Pound for pound, the comparative impact of methane on climate change is over 20 times greater than carbon dioxide over a 100-year period. If the problem (and cows' role in it) wasn’t that serious, the Obama administration wouldn’t have proposed a plan to cut the methane emissions from the dairy industry by 25 percent by 2020. But while the American government might not have thought of this funny a solution for such a serious problem, Argentina’s National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA) has come up with quite an innovative (and amusing) one. Meet the cow-fart-backpack that wants to fight climate change. The reasoning behind the device is the following – what if we could found a way to capture the nearly 300 litres (or 80 gallons) methane a day, an average cow emits, and turn that gas into useful biofuel?

Developing the backpack, the institute's goal was to show that such a process is possible. And so it did. The backpack manages to capture and collect the gases emitted through the cow’s mouth or intestinal tract via a tube inserted through the cow’s skin (which the researchers claim is painless). 37signals backpack loginThe gas is then condensed and ready to use to provide power for the farm on which the cow lives, for example, for activities such as cooking, lighting a home or even driving a car. eurosport backpack pricesAccording to Ricardo Bualo, one of the technicians working on the project, the 300 liters of methane per day a cow emits, can be used to operate a fridge capacity of 100 liters at a temperature of between two and six degrees for a full day.mcm backpack yahoo answers

As of now, there are no plans to produce and use the backpack on a large scale, but the device surely shows an interesting way to approach a problem. Ingenious, funny or disturbing? On Friday, the Obama administration stated that it would make a multi-pronged attack on cow flatulence, in an attempt to cut methane emissions. backpack tamrac expedition 6xAs a result, windy cows have come under renewed scrutiny by scientists, who plan to capture their harmful emissions and convert them into 'green' energy.yak pak laptop backpackBut scientists in Argentina believe they have come up with a solution – cow backpacks that can be used to trap the animal’s natural gas.amco backpackFlatulent cows have come under renewed scrutiny by scientists who are hoping to reduce soaring levels of greenhouse gas pollution. sr 200 backpack sprayer

Scientists in Argentina believe they have come up with a solution - cow backpacks that can be used to trap the animal's natural gas The ‘fartpacks’ extract 300 litres of methane a day from a tube inserted into the cow's digestive tract and convert it into enough energy to run a car for 24 hours. The tube running to the animals' stomachs collects the gas inside the backpacks, which are then hung from the roof of the corral for analysis.The systems have been under development by Argentina's National Institute for Agricultural Technology (INTA) for a number of years and are still at proof-of-concept stage.Guillermo Berra, a researcher at the National Institute of Agricultural Technology, adjusts a plastic tank on the back of a cow at their farm in Castelar, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires is 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide in trapping heat in the atmosphere and can be found in animal waste, landfills, coal mines and leaking natural gas pipes.A cow weighing (1,210 lb) 550 kg is thought to produce 800 to 1,000 litres of emissions each day.

The White House has proposed cutting methane emissions from the dairy industry by 25 percent by 2020.Cows are by far the biggest producers, contributing to around 25 per cent of all methane produced on the planet. INTA’s Pablo Sorondo told Ben Schiller at FastCoExist that the project is not ongoing, but he hopes the technology will one day be used on a much larger scale.‘Imagine a future farm with a couple of these cows used to provide energy to satisfy the farm’s needs,’ he said. For years, researchers have said that the diet of dairy cows could be changed to make them produce less methane – a potent greenhouse gas.Methane is 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide in trapping heat in the atmosphere and can be found in animal waste, landfills, coal mines and leaking natural gas pipes.A cow weighing 1,210 lb (550 kg) is thought to produce 800 to 1,000 litres of emissions each day.The White House has proposed cutting methane emissions from the dairy industry by 25 per cent by 2020.

Scientists say a cow weighing 1,210 lb (550 kg) produces around 800 to 1,000 litres of emissions each day Cows are by far the biggest producers, contributing to around 25 per cent of all methane produced on the planet.As one of the biggest beef producers with some 55 million heads of cattle, around 30 per cent of Argentina's total greenhouse emissions could be generated by cows.As well as fartpacks, scientists are working to develop new diets for cows that could make it easier for them to digest food, moving them away from grains to plants like alfalfa and clover.An earlier study found that by using tannins, researchers can reduce methane emissions by 25 per cent. Bloated: As well as fartpacks, scientists are working to develop new diets for cows that could make it easier for them to digest food, moving them away from grains to plants like alfalfa and cloverCows produce up to 25% of methane emissions, and methane is a particularly potent greenhouse gas. It's no joke, then, to talk about limiting emissions from cow farts.

We've written before about new breeding techniques and feeds, which could help cows better digest their food so they produce less gas. Now comes an idea for collecting up the gas, and making energy from it.The project from Argentina's National Institute of Agricultural Technology is only a proof-of-concept at this stage. But it is intriguing. Researchers put plastic backpacks on cows, then inserted tubes into their rumens (their biggest digestive tract). They extracted the methane—about 300 liters a day. That's enough to run a car, or a fridge for 24 hours. Pablo Sorondo, INTA's press officer, says the project isn't ongoing. The point is to show that it's possible to collect methane from cows and use it for energy. That's unlikely to be as part of the mainstream system. But perhaps it could be viable on remote farms, he says (Argentina has 51.2 million cows). "[We] believe that such technology could be used to collect methane on larger scale, and even imagine a future farm with a couple of these cows used to provide energy to satisfy the farm’s needs," Sorondo says.