After a day at Hans's Farm, Link had already explained everything he wanted to know and what he wanted to explain. The next day, he returned to Huazhou with his children.

When Jessica came home from work, he pulled her to sit down next to him and told Jessica about his vision for the use of the improved bacteria. Let her arrange for the research institute to conduct the corresponding research.

Jessica listened to his idea and pondered for a while before saying, "It's a good idea to use cow dung and pig manure to produce natural gas first." ”

She thought for a while, and then said, "But my dear, have you thought about it?" Just producing natural gas from animal manure will not be very large, and it will have a great impact on agricultural production patterns. Especially for the pollution-free standards that you are now promoting. ”

Link had had this concern before, but he had thought about it as well.

Energy production, he cannot fully control, at most he participates. But he is likely to dominate agricultural seeds and food production standards.

Comparatively speaking, pollution-free production standards are more important to him. Energy production is, at best, a way to make money.

When technologies emerge that can produce natural gas from animal manure, the pattern of animal farming is likely to become high-density intensification. And high-density intensive production seems to violate pollution-free production standards.

But Link is now thankful for the technology of Benehans's laboratory.

He took his wife's hand, rubbed it in it, and said with a smile, "I've thought about it. However, high-density intensive farming is actually very common in livestock farming. For example, the pig industry, which is now more economically developed countries, is highly intensively farmed. The same is roughly true for cattle farms in the United States. So whether it can produce natural gas or not is not the key at all. ”

He paused for a moment and continued, "On the contrary. When cow dung can be used to produce natural gas, farms will be more willing to clean up animal manure, even once a day. They may modify the farm to facilitate the transfer of animal manure to a fermentation facility. ”

"But they may also accumulate animal waste before using it. ”

"No, animal manure accumulation will ferment. There will be less organic matter that can be transformed. If manure can produce natural gas, they will seek a better balance between the rate at which the animal grows and the amount of manure they produce. They'll try hay more or cow feed with more crude fiber than corn. ”

"You're saying that because cattle farming can also produce natural gas, cattle farming is more profitable, and it can lower the price of beef. ”

"Clever!" Link said with a smile and a kiss on her cheek. "You see, if we just promote pollution-free cattle raising based on grass feed, it will increase the cost of cattle raising. Beef prices are sure to go up. Although the improvement is not much, it is not competitive in terms of price in the face of the corn cattle breeding model. Perhaps more people will continue to use corn as feed in pursuit of high growth rates. ”

"Farming with corn does allow the cattle to lose a lot of manure. ”

"Of course, cornstarch has a lot and much less crude fiber than grasses. He smiled and said. "If we provide the way to produce natural gas from cow dung. It may be possible to raise more cattle on existing free-range cattle farms. Although the growth rate will decrease, the more cattle will be raised, and the price of beef will also fall, but the decline in beef income can be compensated for by the natural gas production process. ”

"But the price of natural gas also fluctuates because of this. ”

Link shook his head and said, "Probably not." The United States alone now needs more than 7.5 billion million million BTU per year. The U.S. imported up to 5 billion MBtu (million British thermal units) of natural last year. Our superbugs not only break down quickly, but they do it completely. If grass is used for green storage feed, the urine of each cow's manure per day can produce about 1.5 cubic meters of natural gas, and 20 cows can produce 1MBtu per day. The U.S. cattle herd is about 92 million heads. ”

"It can produce 4.5 million MBtu of natural gas per day. That's about 1.5 billion that year. ”

Link smiled and said, "Yes." Even as a result of this project, the U.S. cattle herd has increased by 50 percent. It is nothing more than an annual increase of more than two billion MBtu of natural gas. The main purpose of raising cattle is still for meat, and the value of natural gas that can be produced per cow is not high. So the number of cattle will not grow too fast. I don't think there will be much change in the existing cattle herd until the population grows to a certain number. ”

"What about the whole world?" Jessica has little research on animal husbandry in the United States. "The U.S. doesn't seem to have the largest cattle herd in the world. ”

"Of course not, India accounts for 30% of the world's cattle, followed by Brazil with about 21%. Link said with a smile. "But India is negligible. Their cattle are the equivalent of bison. It was impossible to raise cattle according to their customs. However, there are currently only 1.1 billion cattle in the world. There should not be so many cattle that can be intensively raised at high density. ”

"Last year, the world's international trade in natural gas exceeded 23 billion MBtu. Half of the billion cattle could be included in high-density intensive farming. ”

"Now the price per BTU is $4.8. "Jessica is talking about downstream prices. "How much does it cost to produce?"

"The upstream price of natural gas in the United States averages $2.6. "Production enterprises also want to make money, and they make a lot of money. This price, of course, is not the cost, but the selling price. "Even if it is because of the impact of biomass natural gas, the price will fall. I think it should be around two dollars. ”

"That cow won't make much profit for the whole breeding cycle!"

Link nodded and said, "So that kind of technology is only suitable for high-density intensive cattle farms." ”

A cow needs to be bred for more than 30 months. If cow dung is used centrally by a large company. That's about $0.1 per cow per day. Even if all the money goes to the farm, it will only cost three dollars per cow per month. And it can't all be given to the farmers. That's a dollar of extra income per cow a month, which is not bad.

So you can't let the big groups dominate. Neither can Benehans.

If Benehans were to lead the project, he might not be able to afford the investment. Because the pastoral areas in the United States are too widely dispersed. He can't build a plant for every community to produce natural gas. The cost of transporting cow dung and workers was not something Benehans could afford.

But Link has another idea: "But we can grow alfalfa with them." ”

Jessica turned her head to look at him, not quite understanding what he meant.

"The reason why alfalfa is highly productive requires high fertility. Cow dung and urine that have completed fermentation still have a lot of nutrients in them. It's even a more ideal fertilizer than composting manure. ”

"Returning those waste liquids to the field?"

Link smiled and said, "Yes." In this way, farmers will reduce their input in cattle feed, which can be seen as making money in disguise. ”

"Well, this model can't be centralized on a large scale. ”

Link nodded and said, "That's the key question. If you want to achieve this kind of recycling, one cattle farm will invest too much, and too many cattle farms will be difficult to run this model. It is best to form a small cooperative with several or dozens of cattle farms and jointly finance the construction of a system. ”

"And how are you going to solve this problem?"

Jessica also finds it difficult to get farmers to pay for such a system: "The payback period of such a system must be very long. ”

"It does take a long time. However, our bacteria decompose quickly and process cow manure quickly, which can reduce inputs. But the investment will still be significant. ”

He frowned and said, "I hope that 30,000 to 50,000 cows will build a cow dung processing center." Because the farm pays for it, they can earn about $20,000 a month from each cow, and if you don't pay for it, the processing system can earn $20,000 to $30,000 a month. It's unclear how much it would cost to invest in such a processing system, but I think two or three million dollars would be needed. ”

Jessica vaguely guessed his thoughts: "Are you going to ask the bank to give them a loan?"

"That's right. Most cattle farms have to come up with that much money, and it is not a small problem. If our bank gives them a long-term loan, say ten years. I think they'll still be willing to participate in such a program. ”

Jessica listened to him and said, "That really allows us to get the most out of that germ." I asked them to draw up an outreach plan based on this idea. ”

For an energy production technology, they want to master it themselves, and it will find the eyes of many people, including the US government. They are arrogant, and they dare not think that they can withstand their guns and arrows. But by spreading the benefits of this technology across a large group, they don't stand out too much.

And that's fast. Scatter the cakes among the whole group before the red-eyed people do it, and it will be difficult for them to make a move. If they want to monopolize all the benefits themselves, Kuaizi can't mention it at all.

And according to Link's current thinking, not only the Benehans Group will benefit, but the cattle farms will also benefit, but also the gas sellers.

Link concludes by adding, "I want this bacterial culture technique. "He's just in case.