Investors Lab

Who’s leading the herd on methane management?

Fluorescent microscope images of three ciliate protozoa from the rumen (first stomach) of cattle. The one on the left is egg-shaped and covered in waves of green, yellow and red hairlike cilia. In the center a clear, red goblet-shaped organism is topped by a bright orange shock of cilia. On the right is a green and yellow microbe that resembles an oval Koosh ball with a blue-green oval in the center. The center oval is the nucleus. These organisms have a newly discovered organelle that makes hydrogen and spurs other microbes to produce methane.

Single-celled microbes called ciliates make up about a quarter of the organisms that help cud-chewing animals break down plants. Scientists have now cataloged 65 ciliate species, including Isotricha prostoma (left), Entodinium caudatum (center) and Dasytricha ruminantium (right) shown here in 3-D fluorescent microscope images.

Chuanqi Jiang, Jinying He, and Che Hu/Institute of Hydrobiology/Chinese Academy of Sciences

By Susanna Camp

🫧 A bump for cow burps

Enteric methane — the polite term for burps from cows and other cud chewing animals — is a primary contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions, representing a significant climate liability. While the global livestock industry largely gets a free ride for this pollution (“burp taxes” and other methane-reduction strategies have been proposed and later rolled back in New Zealand and there’s been a debate about climate credits for cow poop in California), there’s still a problem waiting to be solved. For years, the sector has relied on inconsistently administered feed additives. However, a new era of gastrointestinal intelligence is arriving, thanks to a microscopic discovery that may allow farmers to target the problem at its biological source rather than just changing the menu. SN‘s Tina Hesman Saey reports from the field.

🏭 Factory in the field

The discovery is a newfound organelle (a specialized, tiny structure inside a cell that keeps the cell alive and functioning, acting like a miniature organ) within some fuzzy microbes that live in a cow’s first stomach — the rumen. Scientists hadn’t done much research on these hairy-looking microbes, so researchers in China catalogued DNA from several dozen species. The scientists also found that dairy cows with more of the fuzzy microbes made more methane. The reason? The furry rumen dwellers contain the newfound organelle, and it is an itty-bitty hydrogen factory. All that hydrogen stimulates other gut bugs to pump out methane. In the future, scientists may be able to design interventions that shut down the exhaust pipe without disrupting the cow’s digestion — or meat and milk production.

🐄 Mooving the needle on methane management

The market for enteric methane management is a huge opportunity. Emissions from cud-chewing animals such as cattle, sheep, goats and deer account for about 30 percent of global methane emissions influenced by human activity. Recapturing that energy through suppressed emissions could translate to better feed conversion ratios and higher profit margins for producers. Needless to say, but we’ll say it anyway, it’s good for the planet.

🤠 Who’s leading the herd?

Who’s likely to adopt new solutions? Here are some of the current innovators helping to throttle down herd emissions.

  • Zelp: This company provides a wearable device that continuously measures methane and carbon dioxide emissions from individual cows in agricultural settings. Data from sensors in the device are then trackable on a data analytics platform, so farmers can adjust feed additives accordingly. The company has raised over $11 million in seed and Series A rounds.
  • Sistema.bio addresses the “tail end” of the methane problem. Their modular biodigesters allow farmers to capture animal waste and convert it into clean, renewable energy and fertilizer, essentially turning a metabolic byproduct into a farm-level utility. This Mexico-based private company has raised $109 million to date in strategic funding.

Maybe the next wave of agtech won’t be looking for a cash cow, but re-engineering the ones we already have.

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