The First Fully Green Tractor Built To Cut Down CO2 Emissions In Farming All Over Europe

Farmers have noble jobs. They make sure plants are made available for man to use. However, maintaining a farm can be quite a challenge. The CO2 emissions make a lot of impact on the environment, and this is something that has worried some people.

One great solution would be to build a tractor that’s friendly on the environment. This is something that’s already underway. This first every fully green tractor comes with the ability to cut down CO2 emissions, and it’s something that the world needs right now.

Agriland

When it comes to the world’s CO2 emissions, many unfortunately come from food systems. The industry is a need, and because of this, nothing has been done about it. That is, until today. An agricultural technology firm that comes from Lithuania made a big move by tackling this problem. They created the biggest pollutant in the industry by introducing the world’s first totally green tractor for farmers working all over Europe.

Tractors are often made with big engines, massive torque, and big heavy tires. This means that the CO2 emissions are substantial. And because these farm machineries hardly leave third gear, it also means that the fossil fuels have become a big contributor to agricultural emissions. However, AUGA Group’s biomethane-electric hybrid tractor has been designed to reducing the carbon footprint.


AUGA is Europe’s largest vertically integrated organic food producer. They have come up with the AUGA M1 and this is the first of its kind. It has been specifically designed as a hybrid to make sure that farmers who use them can run these from the time the sun rises to the time the sun sets.

“Three years ago, when we first calculated our emissions, we saw that as much as 30 per cent of them come from the use of fossil fuels on farms,” said AUGA CEO Kęstutis Juščius. He further explained, “There were simply no solutions to change it. That is why we have taken the lead in developing technologies that will allow us to create a new standard for sustainable agriculture and drastically reduce pollution throughout the food value chain. The first result of this work is a biomethane and electric tractor.”

While other green tractors that have been designed in the past run only on biomethane, this one comes with an added electric motor that is powered by internal combustion from the biomethane and battery storage. This allows the tractor to save on power when performing  low-demand tasks and it also enables it to run many hours more of additional use.

 

A Much Smarter Design

With green tractors, designers honed in on using biomethane. This was the much sought-after fuel source because they say that it’s one of the greenest biofuels available. The best part about it is that it comes from livestock waste which farmers have once worried about disposing of. Rather than throwing the livestock waste away, many have come to realize that methane is actually very useful. The compound may be potent and toxic, but as a greenhouse gas, it actually doesn’t cost so much harm to the environment.

Methane gas is considered to be rather harmless. Not like CO2, if methane emissions is reduced by a certain amount, for example, about 10,000 tons, the methane concentration in the atmosphere immediately changes to reflect the reduction. On the other hand, if CO2 is reduced, this will have no effect whatsoever, specifically on its atmospheric greenhouse concentrations.


Hence, turning the manure into biomethane fuel will have a direct pound for pound reduction in emissions. In order to optimize the efficacy of the biomethane fuel, the M1 has been built to lodge bigger, specialized canisters. And the company behind the design offers a refueling service for this specific requirement.

The tractor will be entering production in its motherland Lithuania by next year. This will come with a top speed, which means that it will run around eight miles per hour. It can work nonstop for twelve hours while producing net zero emissions. If the farmer will just have one M1 on a farm, he will be able to reduce a farmer’s carbon footprint by a whopping 100 tons on a yearly basis.

“Our invention makes it possible to create a wide range of tractor applications and make it accessible to all farmers who want to work sustainably,” said Juščius. He also added, “We are not developing technology just to solve our own emissions and deliver on the promise of becoming a CO2-neutral company by 2030. Our goal is bigger—we will strive to make this tractor and other technologies that are still being developed available to farmers all over the world and help solve the global problem of pollution in the agricultural sector.”

 

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