There may be more to hot air than we thought. So we know that cows parping out methane are even more of a hazard to our global wellbeing than the C02 the rest of us spend time producing. But the gas in the manure that cattle produce is rather more promising. ‘The poo from four cows,’ as Devon farmer Winston Reed puts it, ‘Can produce enough energy to heat and light a house for a year.’
And it’s not essential to have a cow in your living room either. Unlike the methane that cows and other ruminants exhale as their stomachs convert grass into milk, and which is believed to be responsible for up to a quarter of “manmade” methane emissions worldwide, the gas in their manure can be harnessed as a force for good. Same goes for all other forms of organic waste that would otherwise rot in landfill sites.
According to The Guardian, Farmer Reed is seeking planning permission to build an energy centre on his farm, on the outskirts of Tiverton, near Exeter. It would take in manure from local farms and waste from local abattoirs and food processors. It would create electricity to light 6,000 local houses and £700,000 worth of heat for local industries, including a sawmill plant making wood pellets for biomass boilers. Since Tiverton’s population is only 20,000, it will go a long way to making the town self-sufficient in energy, he says. More than that, it will help address the issues of food and fuel security by making them more sustainable, at a time when both are in short supply.
The plans hinge on a technology called anaerobic digestion (AD). Organic material is fed into heated tanks, where natural fermentation breaks it down into methane and carbon dioxide – the same basic ingredients as natural gas. This biogas can then be burned to generate electricity in a combined heat and power plant, or, as many countries in Europe do, upgraded so it could be fed into the gas grid or used in vehicles modified to run on compressed natural gas. The only byproduct of the process is an organic fertiliser.
It’s not a load of bull, honest, read more here
And it’s not essential to have a cow in your living room either. Unlike the methane that cows and other ruminants exhale as their stomachs convert grass into milk, and which is believed to be responsible for up to a quarter of “manmade” methane emissions worldwide, the gas in their manure can be harnessed as a force for good. Same goes for all other forms of organic waste that would otherwise rot in landfill sites.
According to The Guardian, Farmer Reed is seeking planning permission to build an energy centre on his farm, on the outskirts of Tiverton, near Exeter. It would take in manure from local farms and waste from local abattoirs and food processors. It would create electricity to light 6,000 local houses and £700,000 worth of heat for local industries, including a sawmill plant making wood pellets for biomass boilers. Since Tiverton’s population is only 20,000, it will go a long way to making the town self-sufficient in energy, he says. More than that, it will help address the issues of food and fuel security by making them more sustainable, at a time when both are in short supply.
The plans hinge on a technology called anaerobic digestion (AD). Organic material is fed into heated tanks, where natural fermentation breaks it down into methane and carbon dioxide – the same basic ingredients as natural gas. This biogas can then be burned to generate electricity in a combined heat and power plant, or, as many countries in Europe do, upgraded so it could be fed into the gas grid or used in vehicles modified to run on compressed natural gas. The only byproduct of the process is an organic fertiliser.
It’s not a load of bull, honest, read more here
This story was taken from the website: http://www.generous.org.uk/
