Dr. Eunsung Kan sees his concept of a closed-loop dairy farm, which reuses wastewater, emits zero waste and powers itself on manure, as the future of sustainable animal farming. Kan's research would utilize existing technology – biochar, a carbon material similar to charcoal, created from animal manure and agricultural waste, such as corn stubble or rice straw – that would be used to filter solid waste and effluent. The biochar could be used as a slow-release fertilizer or converted, via pyrolysis, which is the decomposition of organic material by heat, into energy to power the farm. The closed-loop dairy concept focuses on three main goals – wastewater treatment using dairy manure-derived biochar, producing bioenergy using dairy manure and capturing greenhouse gasses via adsorption onto dairy manure-derived biochar, Kan said.