PHOTOS: CARGILL
INTERVIEW ▶▶▶ Sander van Zijderveld, Cargill
A different approach to reducing methane
Cargill and ZELP announced a partnership to combat methane emissions in the dairy sector. Their new innovative solution has the potential to reduce methane by over 50%. Sander van Zijderveld, ruminant strategic marketing and technology lead at Cargill, tells us about combining technology in methane oxidation and data processing to minimise the environmental impact. He also tells us why this technology is more than a methane-reducing tool.
BY ZANA VAN DIJK, EDITOR DAIRY GLOBAL T
here is certainly a race to combat methane emissions within the dairy industry and, although there are already strategies to reduce emissions, the sector welcomes the next step in innovative technology to boost this even
further. As much as 95% of an animal’s methane emissions come from its mouth and nostrils; the ZELP technology, which attaches to regular halters, captures and oxidises those emissions, according to Cargill.
Tell me more about this new solution to reduce methane emissions – what makes it different? The ZELP wearable is completely different as it is wearable. Other solutions that are coming to market to reduce methane are mostly feed additives, which have an impact on the animal’s metabolism or rumen microbes. In contrast, the ZELP wearable acts outside of the cow by capturing the methane as it is released from the nose and mouth of the animal. It is easy to attach, as it is a regular cow halter.
And why partner with ZELP specifically? We have a clear interest in reducing enteric methane emissions from cattle. We see more and more attention on methane emis- sions from dairy cows, so we would like to help our farmer base tackle that challenge. If you want to be net zero by 2050, you have to commit and do something about it. To help both the farmers and dairy processors, Cargill has an active research programme on ways to reduce enteric methane emissions. We are also on the lookout for new technologies, and this is how the partnership with ZELP started.
ZELP wearable has the potential to reduce methane emissions by over 50%.
6 ▶ DAIRY GLOBAL | Volume 8, No. 3, 2021
What were some of the challenges? The ZELP team were quite advanced already in developing proto- types that demonstrated quite large methane reductions, so by the time we met them there were no major technological chal- lenges. What we are working on today is to make the device small- er so we have effective prototypes that we can bring to market.
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