NationStates Jolt Archive

http://www.canada.com/topics/finance/story.html?id=24b3505d-9472-4b36-bcea-ce8a4b6c67ea&k=89539


Ontario brothers save money turning cow patties into renewable power CanWest News Service
Published: Thursday, May 04, 2006 Article tools


People driving past large dairy farms often hold their noses and step on the accelerator to escape the stench, but to Paul and Fritz Klaesi there is gold in cow manure. The brothers, pictured, who own a farm located 90 minutes west of Ottawa, decided to produce renewable electric power from cattle manure. Their hydro bill has shrunk to $30 a month from $2,500 since they installed a 500-cubic-metre manure digester and methane-powered generator three years ago. Anna Crolla, a researcher at the University of Guelph, will study the Klaesi brothers' power system and manure digesters for the next three years to determine their performance and environmental impact

Well this may not solve the oil crisis but it sould help the energy crisis, just might smell a bit.

The next step: Installing a toilet and/or sewage system that connects with the machine.
These guys have shit for brains. Literally.:p

The next step: Installing a toilet and/or sewage system that connects with the machine.
These guys have shit for brains. Literally.:p


Farmland Manure:"'so fresh it smells like it was just sucked from the cows ass"

Farmland Manure:"'so fresh it smells like it was just sucked from the cows ass"
Klaesi Power: "Poo-er for your [insert here]."

Even a wee bit of a Canadian accent in there.

Klaesi Power: "Poo-er for your [insert here]."

Even a wee bit of a Canadian accent in there.

One from Boston would sound better :p

In the UK, 'Bling' is a dirty word, you know...

In the UK, 'Bling' is a dirty word, you know...


as fag is a dirty word in the US

question: what does bling mean over there???

Farmland Manure:"'so fresh it smells like it was just sucked from the cows ass"

ROFL! 10!

as fag is a dirty word in the US

question: what does bling mean over there???
I like fags.....
(in all forms) :)

ROFL! 10!

*bows*

thank you

Well this may not solve the oil crisis but it sould help the energy crisis, just might smell a bit.

We still have a gobar gas plant (that's what it is called in India) in our farm house, back in my village. A pit with a big dome like thing on top with a tank where I would mix cowdung with water and it goes inside the pit and the methane comes out on top, but cannot escape because of the dome thingy on top of the pit and an outlet from there to the stove inside the house.

The govt paid for the installation and it was quite good too, pretty safe because gobar gas is not that combustible like CNG etc, and it was lot better than cooking with firewoods.

The only bad thing was that I had to collect the dung and mix it with water and pour it into the pit. :eek:

We still have a gobar gas plant (that's what it is called in India) in our farm house, back in my village. A pit with a big dome like thing on top with a tank where I would mix cowdung with water and it goes inside the pit and the methane comes out on top, but cannot escape because of the dome thingy on top of the pit and an outlet from there to the stove inside the house.

The govt paid for the installation and it was quite good too, pretty safe because gobar gas is not that combustible like CNG etc, and it was lot better than cooking with firewoods.

The only bad thing was that I had to collect the dung and mix it with water and pour it into the pit. :eek:

i want me one of those gobar gas plants....will human feces work? cause in that case give me 20 boxes of shredded wheat, a television, and some beer and i'll fill the energy quota by sundown.

i want me one of those gobar gas plants....will human feces work?

I think you can build a plant on your own and if you have 3 cows, you can sustain the plant for basic cooking needs. I think we only had 3 cows for some period and we could easily cook for a family of 6.

http://www.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/80434e/80434E1U.GIF

Some figure here
http://www.mothercow.org/oxen/gobar-gas-methane.html

I don't think human feces would work.

http://www.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/80434e/80434E0k.htm
Health hazards are associated with the handling of night soil and with the use of sludge from untreated human excrete as fertilizer.

In general, published data indicate that a digestion time of 14 days at 35 C is effective in killing (99.9 per cent die-off rate) the enteric bacterial pathogens and the enteric group of viruses. However, the die-off rate for roundworm (Ascaris lumbricoides) and hookworm (Ancylostoma) is only 90 per cent, which is still high. In this context, biogas production would provide a public health benefit beyond that of any other treatment in managing the rural health environment of developing countries.

This has been done for years. I don't understand the comments about the smell. One of the advantages of the system has been containing the gasses that would normally cause odor. It may be the farm is located in a new urban area and people have built next to a dairy farm then complain about normal farm smells. Most dairies today use some type of mechanical collection but that isn't perfect to the point of having NO odor. If a system for fermentation isn't used, the manure is collected and used for fertilizer. Depending on the type of fertilizer spreader that can be smelly. A lot to places today inject the fertilizer underground which cuts the smell and preserves more of the nitrogen.

Yes, human would work but the sewer systems contain a lot of chemicals that hinder digestion by anarobic microbes. Straw or other easy to digest materials might help the fermentation process.

Just think - if this caught on and was able to be adapted to run of human poos, the sales of laxatives would skyrocket!
Time to invest in some laxative companies methinks.

Just think - if this caught on and was able to be adapted to run of human poos, the sales of laxatives would skyrocket!
Time to invest in some laxative companies methinks.

Wouldn't that be really uncomfortable though? To sit on a toilet while driving?

60% of New Zealand's carbon emissions come from cattle farming. We may as well make good use of the shit.

I don't understand the comments about the smell.

Our gobar gas plant was like 20 metres from the house and I never noticed any abnormal smell.

The thing still works after about 15 years since its been installed. As time passes I have come to appreciate it more....absolutely zero money for cooking gas for 15 years !

Btw, can anybody fill me in on what happens to the cow dungs of the animals raised for meat in the animal farms in the US and elsewhere? Is it used as manure atleast or just landfill?

Rotting dung releases enormous amounts of methane. Methane is a 20 times stronger greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. So, it'd be better if all waste, not just cow farts, were fermented and burned as natural gas to CO2. Also, cattle farming and waste production in general consumes a lot of fossil fuels in the first place, so getting some recycled would be nice.

(Methane has four bonds while carbon dioxide has two, so methane has more vibrational modes, which corresponds to more infrared absorption frequencies and more total heat absorption.)

Just think - if this caught on and was able to be adapted to run of human poos, the sales of laxatives would skyrocket!
Time to invest in some laxative companies methinks.


sign me up, I want a shirt now that reads "I've got the shits for $$$"

Btw, can anybody fill me in on what happens to the cow dungs of the animals raised for meat in the animal farms in the US and elsewhere? Is it used as manure atleast or just landfill?
Cattle that are on grass leave their droppings behind and they naturally return to the soil.

Cattle in a feed lot. The droppings are collected and hauled to the fields for fertilizer. The methane collection sysem could work there also but I haven't seen any. I think that's because dairy can use the methane for electricity, which is a big bill in dairy but not in beef. In the US no run off from a feed lot can leave the area. So there are collection pits that collect any rainwater that might contain organic material, not only droppings but also urine. The extra water helps if the underground injection system is used to spread the fertilizer. Underground injection keeps down smell and saves more nitrogen.

Cattle that are on grass leave their droppings behind and they naturally return to the soil.

Cattle in a feed lot. The droppings are collected and hauled to the fields for fertilizer. The methane collection sysem could work there also but I haven't seen any. I think that's because dairy can use the methane for electricity, which is a big bill in dairy but not in beef. In the US no run off from a feed lot can leave the area. So there are collection pits that collect any rainwater that might contain organic material, not only droppings but also urine. The extra water helps if the underground injection system is used to spread the fertilizer. Underground injection keeps down smell and saves more nitrogen.

Thanks for the info.

I think setting up a self sustaining Gobar gas plants in those animal farms (both meat and dairy) is a very viable option. The sludge can still be used as a fertilizer, so there is no loss in fertilizer supply.

I wonder why there are no such plants in the US (correct me if there are some).