Poopie Power
Behold the power of poop
If this is true, then I can really cut down on my energy bills with Carlsson and Penfold. But first Penfold is going to need to stop eating his poop for there to be any real energy production.
The droppings will be tossed into a contraption called aThis is a pretty good idea, but who really wants to pick up that much dog shit? 6,500 tons of it was produced just last year!
methane digester, which is basically a tank in which bacteria feed on feces for
weeks to create methane gas.
posted by Jonathan @ 5:58 PM
7 comments
7 Comments:
Correct me if i'm wrong (Tiffany, i'm looking at you), but isn't methane gas bad for the ozone/over all air quality?? Let me review my ecology notes and get back to this subject...
That and I know Iowa(McKenzie I'm making fun of you) has about 10% of it's methane gas emissions for cows.
Then again with this technogolgy maybe some use can be had from all the shit that spews from Jon and I's mouth.
"...maybe some use can be had from all the shit that spews from Jon and I's mouth."
Amen to that
LOL, thanks, Lisa (smiles & looks at the camera) -- from what I found on a quick google of the term "methane gas bad for the ozone," here are a few factoids:
Methane (CH4) represents the third highest percentage of "things that cause Tropospheric Warming" - this based on data from 1989, so take it as you will. Source #1 is CO2, source #2 for global warming comes from our old friend, CFC's. CFC's, by the way, are the only one of the three that come solely from anthropogenic sources (go Team Homo Sapiens!)
On a per-molecule basis, CFC's are the bad boys (and girls) of global warming -- a molecule of CH4 is 0.001 times as "effective" as a molecule of CFC-12, whereas CO2 is only 0.00005 times as "effective." CO2 tops the % list mentioned above because there's just so gosh darn much of it.
Methane will react with the chlorine molecule released through CFC breakdown (which, by the way, is an almost-neverending scary process) to create HCl, or Hydrochloric acid, enough of which can cause acid rain.
The level of methane in our atmosphere has (at least) doubled in the last 100 years -- top sources of human-induced methane include rice fields, cattle, landfills, and fossil fuel production.
I heard the other day that feeding cows corn (which is done, a lot) increases the amount of methane they produce because they don't totally digest the corn (cows are supposed to eat GRASS).
That's all I have for now, back to you, Lisa (big smile).
Thank you Tiffany. Yes, the reason i questioned methane's effect on the atmospehere is because of what my ecology professor mentioned about the high rate of methane production by cows. Thanks for the info! OH and didn't we just talk to Keri about how awesome free range beef is because they're not fed corn which they're not built to breakdown? (so it not only produces more methane, but it also causes LOTS of intestinal problems for the cows and they often have to be treated and medicated and have a vet's arm up them on bad days). nice coincidence there eh? Woohoo me and Tiffany, but NOT a woohoo for increased methane production. Sorry, Jon, hate to burst your poop bubble there, but its a bad idea.
Well the thing is, they are not going to stop feeling cows corn, and dogs are always going to have to take a crap.
It occurs to me that, while large quantities of free floating methane is NOT necessarily a good thing, utilizing it for fuel (& thereby breaking it down through combustion) could be good for all involved. On kind of the same note, hop over to my blog & check the article on how some Japanese scientists are getting gasoline from cattle dung! Scat rocks!
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