Category: Biomass

Cow Pow

Check out this great video that explains how we can create natural gas from manure. 

"got poop?"

Everyone has seen the “got milk?” advertising campaign encouraging everyone to drink milk because it “does a body good.”  www.gotmilk.com Well, we may be hearing a new advertising campaign in the near future… “got poop?” 

A new form of energy is starting to catch on in the United States and internationally called biomass energy.  Biomass energy is defined by any organic materials that can be burned and then used as a source of fuel.  Cows eat a lot of organic material which leads to a lot of poop, which then leads to large amounts of biogas.  Well, it is not that simple, see the chart under the Biogas is a Form of Renewable Energy section: www.re-energy.ca/t-i_biomassbuild-1.shtml.  The cows do not produce the biogas by themselves; it is produced by billions of microorganisms that live in their digestive systems.  Biogas, which is considered a biomass fuel, is a mixture of carbon dioxide and methane gases.  When the poop decomposes it produces methane.  The biogas can be collected using a simple tank.  Then the biogas is transferred to a closed tank where the gas can accumulate.  After it accumulates it can then be bottled and used to power gas cooking appliances and furnaces, or it can be shipped to a power plant to power homes.   

A dairyman in California started The Vintage Dairy Biogas Project with the goal to provide enough natural gas to power 1,200 homes a day.  The manure from 250,000 cows located on a farm in Shenyang, China will produce 38,000 MWh a year and will reduce approximately 180,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year.  The advantages of these dairy farm biogas projects include: alternative disposal of dung, liquid manure and biowaste; reduces greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (methane has 21 times the greenhouse warming potential as carbon dioxide); generates power; the solid waste from the process can be sold as organic fertilizer and the liquid production residue can be used to nourish grass at farms.   

Can’t you see it now, the “got poop?” advertising campaign will encourage dairy farmers to convert biomass to biogas because it will “do the environment good.” So the next time that you are out on the farm in a new pair of shoes taking in the view, and you make that unfortunate step, don’t curse.  You have just stepped in to the next generation of renewable energy.  “Got poop”…now you do!