# Why don't we?



## OldCootHillbilly (Jul 9, 2010)

Why don't we convert all the animal waste inta fuel? Around here we have lots a hog confinements, there be no reason that that couldn't be converted inta methane gas ta run equipment an electric plants. Done all the time in 3rd world nations. The byproduct a that be natural fertilite. 

Right now they just disc it in an complain bout how it be pollution.

It wouldn't be a total fix ta our energy problems, but like many other pieces sure would help. Just thinkin I guess.


----------



## Tirediron (Jul 12, 2010)

That sir would make too much sense so it cannot be done in todays world


----------



## ZoomZoom (Dec 18, 2009)

I believe this practice is catching on. They're also tapping into the methane at the garbage dumps with great success.


----------



## SurviveNthrive (May 20, 2010)

That's all a wonderful idea, and I hope they do it, in another community, many miles from here, out of our prevailing winds.


----------



## Tirediron (Jul 12, 2010)

Another misnomer, methane capture and use doesn't create smell it captures it and the green house gasses involved and converts them to energy . part of the stink of waste sights and manure is methane and nitrogen release 

manure for the most part when methane capture is done leaves a low odor fertilizer that is more rich in usable nutrient than manure it's self


----------



## UncleJoe (Jan 11, 2009)

Along this same line; in southeast Asia, manure is collected, made into "bricks", dried, used as a fuel source for cooking (and there is no smell) and then the ashes are used as fertilizer. They find it incredibly wasteful to put manure directly into fields before its entire potential is realized.


----------



## The_Blob (Dec 24, 2008)

here in Ohio there is a startup trying to create a model for the future of small farms by positioning themselves (the methane digester) centrally amongst a dozen or so smaller farms

the byproducts of the methane production are solid & liquid fertilizers and bedding substrate for farm animals, which can then be rerun through the process once it becomes unusable


----------



## OldCootHillbilly (Jul 9, 2010)

SurviveNthrive said:


> That's all a wonderful idea, and I hope they do it, in another community, many miles from here, out of our prevailing winds.


We already got lots of em, so just would be nice ta make better use a the waste. An yah, they stink! But hay, the day a the small hog farmer be long gone so if were gonna eat, unfortunately it gonna come from a large producer. Do I like it, no, but be the way it is.

I hope it does catch on. A valuable resource just bein wasted.


----------



## NaeKid (Oct 17, 2008)

Tirediron said:


> That sir would make too much sense so it cannot be done in todays world


Actually - Enmax in partnership with the Bonnybrook Waste Treatment Plant are doing something like that right now that they hope will be able to supply electricty to several downtown buildings ... the BWTP is just about completed (stage one) and the systems are just about ready to be installed (stage two) ...


----------



## OldCootHillbilly (Jul 9, 2010)

Good ta hear. Hope they keep developin it. A good resource that needs ta be used more.


----------



## GetPreparedStuff (Dec 16, 2009)

*Odd Invention: Idle Livestock Hit the Treadmill to Generate Electricity For Farms*

*Odd Invention: Idle Livestock Hit the Treadmill to Generate Electricity For Farms*









*Cow Power The Livestock Power Mill gives bovines plenty of exercise while providing green energy. If the planet's 1.3 billion cattle used treadmills for eight hours a day, they would provide 6 percent of the world's power. William Taylor

​*​​Instead of milling around aimlessly in pens, as most cows do, William Taylor's herd is put to work. As they eat, they walk on an electricity-generating treadmill.
Taylor has invented, among other contraptions, a better manure mixer and a pen that prevents cows from kicking vets during medical procedures on his farm in Northern Ireland.

But this was his first foray into making power. Cows walk as many as eight hours a day while grazing, and one day Taylor realized that he could turn that free motion into electricity. On his Livestock Power Mill, a cow stands on a nonpowered inclined belt that the animal will slowly slide down unless it walks forward, turning the belt, which spins a gearbox to drive a generator. A feed box entices the cow to keep trekking. The one-cow prototype generates up to two kilowatts, enough to power four milking machines. A small farm could earn back a 50-cow system's estimated $100,000 price in three years.

Some studies suggest that cows that exercise make more milk, so Taylor plans to study the system's health benefits this fall. As a bonus, he speculates that it might cut cattle's methane problem-cows burp up to 20 percent of the world's emissions of this powerful greenhouse gas. Humans, he notes, tend to be more gassy if they lounge around. "Helping cows produce less methane while cranking out energy should get them better PR."




​


----------



## Tirediron (Jul 12, 2010)

That is a nice grain roller hooked to the tread mill, and some highperformance cow 2 KW (3hp) an average horse is only rated at ,surprize , 1 hp Tread mills have been around for at least 125 years, So me thinks this is a bit of a spoof, 
:scratch


----------



## The_Blob (Dec 24, 2008)

GetPreparedStuff said:


> he speculates that it might cut cattle's methane problem-cows burp up to 20 percent of the world's emissions of this powerful greenhouse gas. Humans, he notes, tend to be more gassy if they lounge around. "Helping cows produce less methane while cranking out energy should get them better PR.


higher methan production (from BOTH ends) comes from *grass feeding*...

if we were as worried about biological methane sources as we *should* be, we would kill a BUNCH of termites


----------



## flatwater (Dec 15, 2008)

There is enough B. S. in washington D.C. to Power most all the world. How do we harness that


----------



## rs372 (Jan 13, 2011)

I wish we could just clone Nikola Tesla and listen instead of laugh this time.


----------

