We propose a robot that can directly collect the emitted methane in a cow's rumen and further discharge it as feces to be used as a resource.
Specifically, the basic structure of the robot is MOF, which has the property of absorbing methane, which allows the robot to absorb methane in the cow's stomach. The methane is then ejected out of the cow's body in the form of feces, allowing the methane to be extracted. In addition, a DNA-RNA double strand, which can control the gatherings of the robots, is attached to the periphery of the robot, allowing it to control the assembly and thus be reusable. The function and image diagram are detailed in the next section, ”Function”.
The robot works in the following sequence
enters the cow's oral cavity with feed, which is chewed and reaches the cow's rumen. 2.
it moves back and forth between the rumen and the cow's oral cavity with the ruminated fiber. Methane is collected during this process. 3.
in the cow's body, it reaches the intestine with the digestive matter and becomes feces. After being expelled as feces, it is collected by humans.
The feces are dissolved in water and filtered to separate the more significant substances. Smaller substances and MOF complexes remain in the solution.
RNAseH is added to the remaining solution to degrade the RNA, and the MOF complex exposes single strands of DNA. 6.
The temperature is lowered, and the MOF complex assembles through the DNA strand. By re-filtering the self-assembled material, the MOF-complex aggregates can now not pass through the filter paper and are separated. In addition, methane is collected from the separated MOF complexes.
The temperature is increased, and the MOF complex is allowed to diverge and exist on its own. RNA polymerase is added, and the single-strand DNA of the MOF complex is reassembled into a DNA-RNA double strand.
The MOF complex is again introduced into the cow's body along with the feed, and the process returns to step 1.
MOF stands for Metal-Organic Framework. It is a material with a porous coordination network structure with a high surface area exceeding that of activated carbon and zeolite. It consists of countless metal complexes connected by the interaction of metal and organic ligands. **MOFs are porous, nano-sized spaces created by the interaction of organic ligands and metal ions. Some have been developed with a surface area of 7,000 square meters per gram. The porous space is expected to be used in gas adsorption and separation technologies, sensors, and catalysts. Small molecular gases such as hydrogen, methane, and carbon dioxide can be stored in their voids. Another key feature of MOFs is that the collected gas can be extracted and used at any desired time. Furthermore, biomedical applications have been actively studied in recent years. [1][2][3]
In this idea, it will be utilized for the separation action of methane from mixed gas-liquid. Since the principle of vapor-liquid equilibrium is used, as long as the MOF is in contact with air, it can be left in place and absorbed. Although the adsorption efficiency is still not high, future development is expected.