The iPod inventor is now turning cow burps into diamonds – literally

Bit of a change...

The inventor of the iPod has now turned his attention to saving the planet – including converting methane from cow ‘burps and farts’ into diamonds.

Tony Fadell, who is also co-inventor of the iPhone, said the world was ‘waking up to methane’ as a significant contributor to global warming, even though carbon dioxide (CO2) earns most of the headlines.

He was speaking at the Starmus Festival in Bratislava, a mix of science and arts co-founded by Queen guitarist Brian May.

‘Over the years I’ve been able to build… billions and billions of products around the planet that people have used over the years and continue to use today,’ said Mr Fadell, as quoted by The Times. ‘Now what I’m doing is spending my time working with innovators around the world and start-ups helping the planet.’

Alongside inventing the ubiquitous Apple devices, Mr Fadell also created smart thermostat and smoke alarm company Nest, which Google bought from him for £2.5 billion in 2014. 

He has since invested some of that fortune into helping to combat climate change, including funding, designing and building MethaneSAT, a satellite launched earlier this year to detect methane leaks around the world.

‘We can even detect methane emissions from a single derrick [oil or gas pump]’, said Mr Fadell, who hopes the satellite will act as a methane ‘policeman’, forcing gas and oil companies to fix leaks.

However, fossil fuel fields are not the only sources of methane. Cows – more specifically their burps and, to a lesser extent, their flatulence – are also a significant producer of the gas, which traps much more heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. 

‘I have a company called Diamond Foundry that takes biomethane either from the ground or from manure or animals and we turn it into diamonds with green energy, with wind and solar,’ said Mr Fadell.

Like CO2, the methane molecule includes carbon, which the company extracts and crystallises to create diamonds – although for now they are mainly used in electronics, so if you were looking to accessorise an outfit with some solidified cow burp, you may be out of luck.

And Mr Fadell is also attempting to stop the methane at source, meaning less for diamonds in the future.

‘I have another company called CH4 Global and we make red seaweed,’ he said. ‘And if you put red seaweed in with the feed, the burps and farts go down by 80 to 90%.’

Although methane does not last in the atmosphere as long as CO2, according to the United Nations Environment Programme, methane is 80 times more harmful for 20 years after it is released.