1.6 billion cattle, each one exhaling 400 litres of methane per day, is one of the single leading causes of global warming. In April 2022, ZELP was announced as one of four winners of the Terra Carta Design Lab.
At a glance
- ZELP designed a wearable device for cattle to neutralize methane emissions in real time
- The technology oxidises methane into carbon dioxide and water vapor, significantly reducing the global warming potential of methane gas
- Data is captured throughout the life of the animal, to optimise welfare on the farms, improve productivity of the animals, and generate robust GHG inventories
- Through the certification of emissions reductions, carbon insets are generated for beef & dairy companies, and offsets are traded in the voluntary and compliance markets.
“Winning the Terra Carta Design Lab is a huge honour for ZELP. This is the perfect platform to accelerate a climate solution with a strong design element, and we are eager to continue optimising our technology with the endorsement and the support of the Terra Carta. To deliver substantial emissions reductions globally, addressing the largest source of methane emissions is key – and we remain as motivated as ever to scale our solution and play a part in the decarbonisation of the agricultural sector.”
ZELP
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The challenge
The beef and dairy industries are large incumbent segments of the economy, and one of the largest sources of employment worldwide. Feeding the world in a sustainable way is one of our most pressing challenges in the coming decades.
At COP26, the methane pledge was signed by 105 countries, putting companies, governments and consumers under immense pressure to meet methane reductions targets of 30% by 2030. With methane from cattle being the largest source of anthropogenic methane emissions, executing the Methane Pledge requires this problem to be addressed rapidly and effectively.
Our solution
ZELP has been developing its methane mitigation technology since mid-2017, progressing through a number of prototypes and pilot trials in different research institutions.
The company has developed a mitigation approach for enteric methane that is considered to be the only technological approach for the challenge at hand, with any other options falling within the realm of dietary supplements.
ZELP, which has obtained mitigation efficiencies of over 50% when trialled on the animal, has managed to raise VC funding to bring this technology to market in Q4 2022, from investors such as Novo and Danone Manifesto Ventures.
The company is now working on the final steps of its product development, hoping to pair its mitigation technology with a proprietary cutting-edge monitoring tool for farmers to optimise productivity on the farms.
The soft launch planned for Q4 2022, includes important partners operating in the beef & dairy sectors, and shall serve as the first step towards deploying at-scale in 2023.
Outputs
Finalists at Worl Agri Tech, MassChallenge Switzerland, and Global Forum for Innovations in Agriculture.
The company also secured InnovateUK (Sustainable Innovatio), European Commission (SME instrument, EuroStars), EIT Food, and Columbia University (Tamer Fund) grants.
