BCE researcher: Agriculture can reduce CO2 emissions with methane capture

Danish farmers can significantly reduce their climate impact by capturing methane from slurry tanks - a technology that can potentially reduce agricultural CO2 emissions by 1-2 million tonnes annually. This is according to researcher Anders Peter Adamsen from Aarhus University, in an interview with Politiken.
 
New research shows that methane emissions from slurry tanks are greater than assumed. Methane is a more powerful greenhouse gas than CO2, and capturing methane from slurry tanks, followed by burning or converting it to CO2, can provide a quick and safe climate benefit.
 
Yet no money was allocated to this technology in the recent tripartite agreement between the government, the Danish Society for Nature Conservation and the Danish Agriculture and Food Council. Instead, the agreement focuses on more expensive technologies like pyrolysis.
 
‘I find it incomprehensible that we have some technologies that can come into play in a few years, and then you talk about pyrolysis, shallow soil and feed supplements,’ says Anders Peter Adamsen.
 
Straw pyrolysis alone can never exceed 1.9 million tonnes of reductions. It would require all available straw to be used, which according to Anders Peter Adamsen is unrealistic. He emphasises that methane from manure tanks is a more promising and faster solution.
 
The Danish Agriculture and Food Council points out in the article that both technologies are important and support the government's investment in pyrolysis. They believe that future carbon taxes will motivate farmers to adopt technologies, but call for a better system to approve climate technologies.
 
You can read the full article in Politiken here (paid article, and in danish)