Burp control: How can methane released in livestock belches be reduced? Scientists are trying various options

Subject :Environment

Context:

Central Institute for Research on Buffaloes in Haryana, has prepared a feed supplement that can reduce a potent greenhouse gas (i.e. Methane) belched out by stock animals like cattle, goats and sheep.

Diet check:

Ruminants have specialised digestive systems in which microorganisms like fungi, bacteria, protozoa and archaea thrive, and help in the digestion of otherwise indigestible cellulose-rich plants.
Among them,Archaee is responsible for producing methane.
Researchers have targeted to reduce the algae population without affecting the digestion and productivity of the animals.
They have concocted the supplements using Indian cherry and Indian elm leaves, garlic oil, mustard oil, cottonseed oil, sodium nitrate and magnesium sulphate.

Seaweed, another option:

Globally, there is a race to develop different strategies to reduce methane production in ruminants.
EU approved a feed supplement namedBovaerwhichis a fine granular powder containing 3-nitrooxypropanol, which inhibits an essential enzyme responsible for methane production.
Seaweed, particularly Asparagopsistaxiformis, a red alga growing in tropical and subtropical waters, has the potential to reduce methane emissions from animals.

Issue in seaweeds:

Seaweed appears to inhibit the release of greenhouse gases through two chemicals, bromoform and bromochloromethane, which can induce cancer.
It has an objectionable odour.

Methane gas:

The warming effect of methane is 30 times greater than CO2, it is shorter-lived and lasts in the atmosphere for about 12 years.
By contrast, CO2 lingers for centuries. Reducing methane emissions has therefore been touted as one of the most immediate opportunities to slow global heating.
In 2021, over 100 countries signed the Global Methane Pledge, where signatories agreed to take voluntary steps to reduce global methane emissions by 30 per cent from 2020 levels by the end of the decade.
This could eliminate over 0.2˚C warming by 2050.