The Power of Poo
Farmers generate energy, save money and help the environment, with a little help from some dung.
Monica Heger • October 8, 2008
![This cow's poo helps keep the lights on. [Credit: Monica Heger]](https://scienceline.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/cow-power.gif)
This cow's poo helps keep the lights on. [Credit: Monica Heger]
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Back at New Hope View Farm the wind begins to pick up, and Head and I step under an overhang off the barn where his cows live. I ask Head if he were to do it all over again, start from scratch, would he go the anaerobic digestion route? He looks sideways at me from underneath his baseball cap. “I knew you were going to ask me that,” he says.
He ponders the question for a minute. “Well, I would seriously consider it,” he says slowly. “There are lots of benefits. The thing that would restrict me is the ability to make money.”
In order for the digester to pay off the initial $1 million investment he says he would have to produce all his own electricity, sell extra back to the grid and produce extra bedding to sell. Also, maintaining the microturbine is extremely time intensive and technical, and every minute spent with the microturbine or digester is a minute spent away from his main task of being a dairy farmer.
“So, the jury’s still out,” he says.
Even the energy experts don’t have a one-solution-fits-all approach. “Typically you use anaerobic digestion because you have to do some form of manure treatment anyways,” says Stepan of the Energy and Environmental Research Center. “It’s just another piece of the energy puzzle.”
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9 Comments
This is a really great article! But, I have a question. I recently went to a lecture on energy and the environment given by an economist, of all people. But, there was a scientific discussion about the amount of greenhouse gases produced by methane. I don’t remember the specifics, but essentially many people brought up the point that methane has a higher concentration of greenhouse gases per molecule than say carbon dioxide. One, is this accurate? Two, is less methane required for to generate heat/power than other forms of energy so that the higher concentration of carbon dioxide per molecule is essentially canceled out because less methane is needed?
Thanks!
Methane is a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide–about 20 times more potent. This just means that one molecule of methane traps more heat than one molecule of carbon dioxide.
By using the biogas from the cows to make energy, you are preventing that methane from entering the atmosphere.
When you use methane as energy, you are essentially breaking the bonds that hold it together, which creates the heat used as energy. So the end product is no longer methane. One of the byproducts is carbon dioxide. However, you are still emitting less greenhouse gases because you are preventing the methane itself from entering the atmosphere.
Does that make sense?
Enlightening article…thanks for explaining the system and process in layman’s terms and for the humorous personal interjections. Such a fresh approach – a serious global concern addressed responsibly without the gloom and doom undertones many writers feel compelled to burdon the reader with. Question: What are the chances that human poo will also find a niche in natural energy production?
Anaerobic digestion is a very promising technology indeed — some big dairies are generating power from the methane produced and selling it back to the electric grid. (NY Times, Sept. 24, 2008)
Problem is, it isn’t really cost-effective for smaller dairy farms, which although a dwindling portion of the total in the U.S., still produce half our milk.
Michigan State University researchers aim to develop scalable, modular technology to digest manure and use the methane to generate electricity — and use the liquid and solid byproducts for additional biofuel, fertilizer, animal bedding, feed and even building materials.
The story, linked to a wealth of background, can be read at: http://news.msu.edu/story/5695/
I think this is a great article. It points out the multiple benefits of biogas production.
OH MY GOD ITS LARRY! THE COW THAT COMFOTS ME WHEN PPL MAKE FUN OF ME FOR SHITTING MYSELF AND LICKING WINDOWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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thank you i can finally finish my homework !
xx
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xx
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