Biogas: power from cow dung

US battery boffins build cow dung fuel cell. According to researcher Ann Christy, Associate Professor of food, agricultural and biological engineering, the bugs in 0.5l of bovine gastric juices can generate 600mV - half the voltage needed to power up a AA-sized rechargeable battery. The voltage arises from electrons freed when the bacteria digest cellulose in the cow's gut.

Practical Action is helping farmers in Sri Lanka install biogas units on their farmers to convert cow dung into an alternative power supply.Mr Ratnayake's collects manure from his cows in a specially adapted cattle shed where they feed; he then mixes it with water and leaves it to ferment in a large concrete tank or pit.

Gas (of which 65% is methane) is produced as a by-product of this fermentation and Mr Ratnayake collects it in a simple storage tank (manometer) from where he can then pipe it into his house when he needs it.

practicalaction.org...

Washington DC should capitalize on this. They are so full of BS....

yeah, too easy.

I was talking to my wife about this the other day, as there was a show on and they were using buffalo chips for fuel. She was grossed out until i pointed out how inefficient their digestive tracts were, thus the reason they burned so well.

Then we started talking about the methane in cow farts, and how much greenhouse gas that actually produced.

it is nice to see that we are looking for further uses for cow dung. It is a great fertilizer, for sure, and we have no shortage of it. They should look at other herbivorous choices to do this with, as well. Like llamas, or something.

I remember seeing a doco about this some years back. There is a town in (I think) Sweden where they used only local cattle to power the towns busses and there was plans to try and convert the whole town to methane and eventually neighbouring towns etc...It was going to be the next big thing in power.
I haven't heard (herd ) how it has come along for a while but I am suprised it hasn't caught on more before now.

Originally posted by bigfatfurrytexan
Washington DC should capitalize on this. They are so full of BS....

yeah, too easy.

I was talking to my wife about this the other day, as there was a show on and they were using buffalo chips for fuel. She was grossed out until i pointed out how inefficient their digestive tracts were, thus the reason they burned so well.

Then we started talking about the methane in cow farts, and how much greenhouse gas that actually produced.

it is nice to see that we are looking for further uses for cow dung. It is a great fertilizer, for sure, and we have no shortage of it. They should look at other herbivorous choices to do this with, as well. Like llamas, or something.

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Actually, it's a great business opportunity for making your own methane gas and selling it to the public, there's never a shortage of : Cow Dung, Dung Gas and Customers for cheaper alternatives.

Originally posted by VIKINGANT
I remember seeing a doco about this some years back. There is a town in (I think) Sweden where they used only local cattle to power the towns busses and there was plans to try and convert the whole town to methane and eventually neighbouring towns etc...It was going to be the next big thing in power.
I haven't heard (herd

) how it has come along for a while but I am suprised it hasn't caught on more before now.

There's no better time than NOW, to implement this simple but effective method, it works well. Just need people to collect the Cow Dung and bring it to a central point for processing

reply to post by Dubyakadubla

They should have looked into this ages ago,look at all the dung we've already wasted.