Their term papers were compiled into an informative 237-page report. The Program, perhaps the only one in the U.S. involving agricultural student internships in Japan, was extremely successful and will be repeated. To ANSC Home Page Reduction of Global Methane Emissions. Methanogens remove hydrogen produced by fermentative microorganisms in anaerobic environments. This interaction improves microbial efficiency, but methane represents a significant energy loss to ruminants and is an important greenhouse gas.
Some species have acetogens as the predominant hydrogen-utilizing bacteria in the intestinal tract.
Several acetogenic bacteria have been isolated and characterized which have potential to replace methanogens in the rumen. These bacterial isolates rapidly reduce hydrogen concentrations in rumen cultures where methanogens are inhibited. Hydrogen concentrations decreased more rapidly, to almost the same extent as cultures where methanogens had not been inhibited. Conditions under which acetogens can replace methanogens in the rumen are being studied. Replacing methanogenesis with acetogenesis should enhance animal performance by 5 to 10 percent and reduce global methane emissions.