00:00These flasks of goopy algae are part of a breakthrough in the fight against greenhouse gas emissions.
00:06Researchers at Taiwan's Fisheries Research Institute have found that adding small amounts of the algae genus Asperogopsis into cattle feed can cut the methane that cows emit by over 90 percent.
00:17The secret is in the way it alters cows' gut flora, as one researcher explains.
00:30The trouble with research into this algae so far is that there isn't much of it around Taiwan.
00:40It can be found in some nearby waters, but it tends to disappear in summer.
00:44And it's taken several years of lab work to figure out how to grow the algae in the quantities needed for cattle feed on a mass scale.
00:52The trick was finding a way to get the algae to thrive, despite competition for many rival species.
01:00And this is more than a scientific breakthrough. It's a business opportunity.
01:13Methane is the second most emitted greenhouse gas, and cattle farming is a major source of it.
01:18The industry looks forward to using cattle feed with algae to cut emissions.
01:23They can then market milk, for instance, as a low methane product.
01:26The market for fighting methane from cattle farming is now worth three billion U.S. dollars worldwide.
01:44And right now, there are only seven companies with the tech needed to do the job.
01:48Now, Taiwan could soon be home to an eighth.
01:51Howard Zhang and John Van Trieste for Taiwan Plus.
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