Prince Charles, after visiting the Royal College of Art, has backed an invention that will convert methane emitted by cow's burps into carbon dioxide and water vapour. This will be done by putting a methane catching device in the form of a mask around the animal's head which will catch the gas and transfer it into a micro-sized catalytic converter, before being released into the atmosphere. The company behind this is a startup named Zelp and it claims that tests have shown a 53 per cent reduction in methane emissions which it hopes to bring up to 60 per cent by next year.
Cows produce a lot of methane and carbon dioxide which both contribute heavily to climate change. According to Zelp, It's also been found that more than 95 per cent of these emissions come from their mouth and nostrils. The company has started working with one of the United Kingdom's largest meat manufacturers to help test their devices on livestock.
According to The Telegraph, Prince Charles hailed the invention as “fascinating” and spoke to the creators of it. He said, “May I say that it is critical because of the urgency we face in terms of the crisis confronting us in all directions and just how important is what their ideas represent in terms of finding solutions rapidly…I can only hope as a result of this and drawing more attention to what you are doing that we will have a better chance of winning this battle in shorter time. I can only wish you every possible success. Many congratulations, marvellous."
The invention won a prize of 50,000 pounds along with three others as part of the Prince's Sustainable Markets Initiative.
