Dung-Powered Tractor Uses Cow Waste To Flush Out Agricultural Emissions

Cattle farming, and by extension cow manure, is responsible for a whole heap of greenhouse emissions for the planet. To help farmers be more environmentally friendly, New Holland Agriculture has come up with a new tractor designed to run on fuel created from cattle waste, functioning exactly the same as a traditional diesel tractor, but with an eco-friendly spin. 

Collaborating with UK-based Bennamann, the company has come up with a system that allows fuel to be created on-site on farms. Farmers simply have to collect cow manure, and instead of turning it into fertilizer, they can pump it into large tanks where anaerobic organisms turn it into biogas containing methane. 

It’s no secret cows are known to produce lots of methane gas, which produces a warming effect 80 times stronger than that of carbon dioxide. Once the gas is purified into biomethane, it can then be compressed into liquefied LNG to be used in the tractors’ engines. 

At the moment, the T7 Methane Power LNG tractor is only a concept, but New Holland claims it is the first tractor in the world to run on LNG, essentially allowing farmers to create their own fuel from waste in a more circular setup. 

For smaller-scale farms, Bennamann has plans to lease mobile equipment that can go from one farm to the next to periodically convert the manure into LNG. Farmers can also purchase cryogenic tank systems needed to keep the gas at below-freezing temperatures. 

While turning methane emissions from cow dung into LNG to power tractors won’t be an entirely emission-free process, the benefits are still substantial. Turning the more powerful methane emissions into carbon dioxide emissions, and saving on burning more fossil fuel, will still help yield significant eco results for the planet. 

Going forward, the company plans on commercializing the LNG tractor and producing it on a larger scale, so that more farms across the globe can turn towards this more sustainable way of raising livestock.

“The CO2 reduction for a 120-cow farm is potentially equivalent to around 100 western households,” says New Holland.

[via New Atlas and CNH Industrial, images via CNH Industrial]