The methane-busting seaweed technology developer who got $500,000 from the latest Provincial Growth Fund round expects to do product trials here this year and maybe have a product commercially available by next year.
CH4 Global, based in New Zealand and the United States, is focused on commercial scale aquaculture and processing of native asparagopsis seaweed in Southland, Marlborough and Northland and initially in the Port Lincoln area in South Australia.
Company director and co-founder Nick Gerritsen says the goal is to make it easy and cost-effective for farmers to adopt a simple and viable approach to address climate change by harnessing the power of seaweed native to NZ and South Australian waters to produce a supplement for cattle that will cut the amount of methane produced by ruminant animals.
It plans to supply 10% of the Californian market by the end of 2022. California is home to 1.8 million dairy cows, about 20% of the US dairy herd, and accounts for about the same amount of US milk production.
“California has already enacted legislation targeting 40% reduction by 2030 and so globally it is the most advanced and a sensible starting point for us. The NZ target is at the bottom end of the scale and while it is a start we hope to demonstrate that farmers can make money out of what we are doing and so provide impetus for a solid business reason for increasing the methane-reduction target.”
He expects CH4 (the brand name is the chemical formula for methane) Global to be involved in a variety of studies and trials in NZ this year that might also lead to some limited market penetration in 2021 but warns that in all high-growth companies access to scaling capital is the biggest limitation.
“For the last 12 months we have been operating in stealth, solidly building the proposition and to date we have had no indication that this will be a limiter for us. We have partners and key relationships in large global capital markets. What is true, though, and is important to note, is that the scale of capital required is not generally available in NZ.”
The long-term goal is to develop a feed supplement suitable for a range of ruminant animals including dairy cows, beef cattle, sheep and goats but the immediate focus will be on dairy as the supplement could be fed in the shed when cows are milked.
In the longer term CH4 hopes to work with farmers to discover the best way to feed supplements to grazing ruminants.
Gerritsen says there are about 6.5m dairy cows in NZ and simply supplying that market will require an aquafarm of more than 10,000ha. There are aquaculture farms in Korea and China that are much larger.
“We are simply bringing some of that scale to NZ for a specific seaweed and there is sufficient allocated water space available right now. CH4 is not about taking over the ocean but rather working within the natural environmental envelope to produce sufficient quantities on a sustainable basis.”
It’s estimated about 50,000 cows could be supplied annually from 100ha of farmed water space.
Scaling to supply that market will be hard work but achievable because of the approach and business model being developed.
“Indications are that only 100 grams per day per cow is all that is needed – but the size of this dose is driven by the quality of the seaweed, hence our focus on quality.”
Most seaweed grows quite quickly and asparagopsis is no exception.
“We expect to be able to have at least three sustainable harvests per year, perhaps more once we refine and optimise the growing conditions around seasonality, light, nutrient level and a variety of other conditions.”
The supplement is not intended to be a magic bullet doing everything on every aspect of cow physiology, Gerritsen says.
“Cows produce phosphorus and nitrogen as a part of the digestive process of proteins. We aren’t giving any appreciable amounts of protein nor does asparagopsis do anything specific to protein metabolism that we are aware of.
“What we do know is that we will see dramatic reductions in methane from cows as bromoform, the active ingredient, blocks the last step of methanogenesis so that other materials are produced that the cow can reabsorb that give additional energy for the cow rather than wasting that energy and simply burping it out as methane.
“So, not only will we mitigate methane, we will also either optimise a cow’s production or minimise total feed requirements if it is already optimised. There is evidence going back centuries suggesting that livestock that have seaweed in their diet perform better, are healthier and more reproductive.”
Despite concerns shown by some NZ scientists, Gerritsen says studies show asparagopsis does not seem to affect the taste of milk or meat.
“There is a lot of misinformation out there around this specific approach. Much of that misinformation is either factually incorrect or simply personal viewpoints from individuals or groups that perhaps have vested interests why they’d not want this approach to work.
“Not only will this work, it is our company mission to scale this and truly move the needle on climate impact through reducing methane at scale – and by doing so provide the farming sector with a straightforward, drop-in solution. CH4 is all about enabling farmers to future-proof themselves and by doing so open up new financial benefit and revenue.”
Studies into taste should be published later this year. CH4 did not do the studies but is aware of the findings.
The CH4 project is separate from a Cawthron Institute proposal that received $100,000 from the Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures Fund to look into a seaweed-based cattle feed supplement.
“As we understand it Cawthron is focusing on the science of land-based cultivation of asparagopsis. This is certainly in line with their skills and well-known capabilities,” Gerritsen says.
“Our collective skills and capabilities are on growing and scaling businesses. We are focused on the commercially scaled aquaculture of existing locally sourced asparagopsis and we view the Cawthron project as complementary. We are more development focused and they are sensibly more research focused.”
CH4 Global has already processed its first 100 grams of finished product and Gerritsen is confident it will be the first commercial-scale producer and the leading global supplier into Australasia, California and other livestock-centric areas around the world.
