Dr. Frank Mitloehner dispels myths of livestock impact on methane and air pollution.
Joel Hastings of DairyBusiness interviews Dr. Frank Mitloehner from UC Davis, who gave a feature presentation at the California Dairy Sustainability Summit on Nov. 27 in Sacramento, California. He debunked four myths that those advocating "plant-based diets" use to claim that livestock agriculture is a major source of greenhouse gases. In this conversation, he hits the highlights of his research.
I am working on a Master’s thesis, barn design, that conditions the air within the barn, vs conventional air conditioning. Our system compresses the air within the barn to 3 times that of the boiling point of CO 2 (75.5 psi), cools it, releasing it into a series of water-slush filled tanks, capturing the CO 2, then releases the COLD air back into the barn, but not before a portion of the N2 is filtered out, maintaining an OSHA approved 22.5% Oxygen level. Then the Methane Oxygen barn air is used to help fuel the barns biogas generator. All powered by a co-generating windmill that can both compress air and generate electricity. A further option added to the design might be to have a bio char producing gasifier added as an additional fuel source.