Comments on: Cash Cows: Vermont Dairy Farm Converts Cattle Manure into Electricity

By: santaidm

santaidm — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 14:08:45 +0000

“….Liquid waste will be used as fertilizer. Leftover solids will be used as cattle bedding, saving the farm about $80,000 on the cost of sawdust….”

If these leftovers are used for bedding doesn't that bedding get mixed with the fresh manure and lower the efficiency of the digester as it goes around a second time?

Where can I find detailed information on the process? Is the liquid fertilizer better than composted manure? How does the cattle diet influence the process?

By: Manure to Electricity « EcoCiety: Discourse on a Sustainable Future

Manure to Electricity « EcoCiety: Discourse on a Sustainable Future — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 03:35:35 +0000

[...] It is estimated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that, in the U.S., cattle alone will emit about 5.5 million metric tons of methane into the atmosphere per year. This accounts for 20% of the US methane emissions. As population grows and, consequenting beef consumption, it is expected that methane gas emissions will continue to increase. In the Environmental New Network (ENN), there is a story where a dairy farm. [...]

By: Uncle B

Uncle B — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:19:57 +0000

If it is not measurable and taxable or replaces anything that is, it will not be welcomed by government! If it shows any promise of ROI and juicing for higher ROI’s corporate interests will apply patent lawyers to it and steal it from the common folk and exploit it fir themselves. This is the law in the new America, not a Democracy at all! but a pit of tax hungry political hacks serving a greater community of corporatists capitalist ROI hungry thieves!America has evolved!

By: Madeleine Lapointe-Millar

Madeleine Lapointe-Millar — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:52:33 +0000

While it is true that a great deal of methane is generated in digestion, the majority of the methane is released when the manure is left in piles or the “new” way – ‘lagoons’. When it rains and the ‘lagoons’ overflow, then we get ‘tainted’ crops that kill people because of the dangerous bacteria that this method increases. These are Aerobic bacteria. Covering the ‘pools’ turns the process into an Anaerobic one, generating much more methane, which is captured and burned off to produce electricity (cleanly). (this method can be used with ANY species ‘manure’ and also with ‘landfills’ – don’t ya just love those euphemisms…. and yes, this method has been studied and perfected for a very long time. A friend of mine constructed one for a friends’ farm as a summer project, back in 1970, and the very scientifically described results duly handed over to our government who were no doubt “lobbied” to suppress it

By: E. Matthews

E. Matthews — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:12:30 +0000

It’s animal burping, not the manure, that is a large contributor to methane emissions. Globally, cows and other ruminants (cud-chewers with multiple stomachs such as water buffalo, sheep and goats) contribute about 15% to the world’s total methane emissions. Manure is a much smaller source – maybe a few percent – because it produces methane only when managed under anaerobic (low- or no-oxygen) conditions.

By: Nick Ronan

Nick Ronan — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 21:31:44 +0000

This is great work.
But I’ve often wondered about the potentially greater efficiency of using the gas to pump water, heat water and refrigerate milk directly rather than going from gas to electricity and then back to heating, cooling etc – a two step conversion loss instead of one.
And in Australia, the cost of connecting into the grid can be large.

Any comments?

By: brendan

brendan — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 00:43:10 +0000

there’s nothing new about the technology and in fact a firm once related to Green Mountain, Native Energy has developed an entire line of green energy business based on dairy farm manure converted to energy. They have several projects on-line and operating now. This is important work and should be replicated many times over, but it is not easy. the three years cited here are not uncommon, and few have the patience for the permitting, accrediting, etc. nevermind the diffulties of financing such a project in the first place.
nonetheless, there could be thousands of such projects just in the American northeast, bringing income to farmers who dearly need it, and producing kilowatts in the section of America that is most dependent on Middle East oil right now.
not pretty or sexy like wind or solar power, but if anything, this sort of energy production is even more green since it attacks such a serious greenhous gas emission problem right at the source.

By: Walter

Walter — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:54:07 +0000

There’s nothing new about this technology, only that it’s a shame that more facilities aren’t producing power in this manner.