By KOZO MIZOGUCHI, Associated Press Writer Fri Mar 3, 8:37 PM ET TOKYO - Scientists in energy-poor Japan said Friday they have found a new source of gasoline — cattle dung. Sakae Shibusawa, an agriculture engineering professor at the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, said his team has successfully extracted .042 ounces of gasoline from every 3.5 ounces of cow dung by applying high pressure and heat. "The new technology will be a boon for livestock breeders" to reduce the burden of disposing of large amounts of waste, Shibusawa said. About 551,155 tons of cattle dung are produced each year in Japan, he said. >> Read More
Hmmm, 551155 tons is 17636960000oz of poo which makes 740752320 oz of Gasoline or 5 787 127.5 US gallons. I wonder if 5.8 Million Gallons will maka difference in Japan, and how much energy is spent creating the fuel?
This is neat, if it can produce more energy than it takes to extract the gas. Strange article in that it implies that large amounts the waste will somehow disappear. My math tells me that it will reduce the waste by 1.2%, not a big deal.
I'm getting different numbers. 17636960000oz of poo makes 211643500 oz of gas or 1,653,000 gallons. Your numbers look more promising.
i remember this being done last year sometime here in the states.. it was 1 gallon to every 3 gallons used of poo... very low energy was used to make it too.
I'm not sure about human dung. But, I suspect Texas oilman dung would be be very productive of gas. Oh, you meant gasoline. Sorry. I guess any turd under a bush won't work.
Hehehehe turd under a bush Seriously though, wouldn't the NEV be higher by extracting methane gas in a digester? This is already being done - started off as "pilot" projects and now proven - at sewage plants and with animal waste. By using anaerobic bacteria to convert the manure in a digester, you get rid of a *lot* of the waste that way, get a lot of methane, and the resultant sludge is odor free.
Geez I forgot about that. Unlike regular manure, it doesn't stink up the landscape either. It's a win-win as far as I'm concerned.
There are places that do. Wastewater treatment facilities can capture a huge amount of methane, which can in turn be turned to electricity. I think the main treatment plant in Toronto figures that they could produce a theoetical max of 113 MW of power from methane derived from the waste water. They are installing (or perhaps have already installed) a 20 MW system. Landfill gas projects are sprouting up all over the place. I've read about systems with a capacity as big as 36 MW but I think <10MW system are the norm. Still, it's better than just turning the CH4 into heat, H20, and CO2. No doubt. There are several such projects going on here in CO. More power to 'em (literally). And this fertilizer has the added advantage of offsetting fertilizer produced in the conventional way, so there's another small victory.
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: To paraphrase an old bumper sticker from the 70's... "Buy a Japanise cow pie... Put 10 American Holstiens out of work!" :lol:
There's a Poo Power initiative in Vermont. The larger dairy farmers are installing anerobic digesters connected to micro (and larger, perhaps) turbines to produce electricity that is put into the grid. Citizens in Vermont can pay for a portion of their electricity to come from cows like people in other states can pay a little extra for wind power.
That does it. Vermont is now unquestionably my favorite state. Not that there was any question before...
Here are a few more poo/waste to energy projects that might be of interest: http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=44443 and ... http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=44444
