Project


MethAnLand

Contact: Dr. Björn Kuhla

Duration: 2021-2023

Funding: Bundesanstalt für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft (FKZ: 28N200502)

Abstract:
As a contribution to climate protection, the project aims to reduce methane emissions from livestock farming into the environment by using them for energy generation through extraction at the point of origin for the operation of agricultural machinery. Specifically, the research project will investigate the possibilities of separating methane from barn air and respiratory air from cows and examine them with regard to economic use. The focus here is on the liquefaction of methane from cattle farming for its use in agricultural machinery by cooling it and bringing it below the boiling point of an atmos-phere. Calculations at Mobima shall show when cooling is economically viable. At Mobima a diffusion test rig will be set up to analyse the enrichment processes both of synthetic gas mixture and cattle respiratory gas from a respiration chamber at FBN with focus on the geometry, the type of supply, the residence time and method of withdrawal of the enriched atmosphere. The aim is the enrichment of the methane content so that an economical methane separation is possible. The enrichment and separation of methane from the exhaust air of the respiration camber at FBN, containing oxygen, carbon dioxide and ammonia is further tested in an experimental approach on a model scale depend-ing on the composition of feed for cows and volume flows through the chambers. Based on the results of the previous work packages an economic and process evaluation will be carried out and a detailed documentation of the results will be prepared.