Crowcon’s portable LaserMethane®Detector is helping UK supermarket Tesco to monitor burps from cows on its dairy farms.
Cow burps are a major source of methane emissions globally. Unlike humans and horses that emit methane from their rears, cows emit methane from their mouths. Methane is 20 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide and is an area where significant improvements have already been made in reducing the effects of global warming.
The aim of the research being conducted by the Tesco Dairy Centre of Excellence and the University of Liverpool’s School of Veterinary Science is to measure the amount of methane released by cows on different farms under different management and feeding regimes to see what impact it has on the environment and how milk and dairy products supplied by Tesco can reduce this impact overall.
The LaserMethane® Detector is a hand held device which is held about three metres from a cow’s mouth, from where the amount of methane emitted can be measured and then recorded through its internal logging capability. This is performed four times a day over a 24 hour period on ten dairy farms, with 100 cows taking part. The results will allow Tesco to determine variations on each farm and see if they are related to the time of feeding and the type of feed.
Dr Rob Smith of the University of Liverpool, who is conducting the research on Tesco’s behalf, commented: “This is the first time the laser methane device has been used on commercial dairy farms to see if the theoretical differences in methane production due to diet and management are actually seen in practice. This is a small scale initial trial to test the approach practically, but I am excited about the potential to understand more about how different feeds and farm management can reduce cow methane output.”
Other leading dairy producers are now also considering similar trials in the future.
Measuring Methane levels from a nearby Landfill site
More commonly, LaserMethane® Detector is seen in applications such as landfill site monitoring, where it is used for measuring escapes and leaks at a distance of up to 150 meters away from the gas source. Utilising Tuneable Diode Laser Absorption Spectroscopy (TDLAS) methane column density is measured and displayed on backlit displays in both numerical and graphical formats. Whilst operating at a different wavelength and in combination with high technology detection electronics, the laser beam is similar to that used in presentation pointers, ensuring that flammable gas sources (or cows!) are affected by it shining over them.
