Looking for a sustainable fuel to power your fleet of semi trucks? If you are a dairy farm, we'd bet that the one thing you've got too much of is cow manure. Hilarides Dairy happens to have this exact problem, and it's turning it into a solution. Over 10,000 cows will happily provide enough dung to generate 226,000 cubic feet of biomethane gas each and every day. That amount of gas (literally) is enough to cut 650 gallons of diesel fuel fuel per day from the farm's fleet of vehicles.
The process goes something like this: Cows excrete their spent fuels as manure, which is then flushed out into a lagoon where microbes begin breaking it down, resulting in the production of methane gas. The gas is then further purified at a local refinery that strips out unwanted bits like carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide. After this final refining, the fuel is pressurized and fed into Cummins diesel engines that have been converted to run properly on methane gas.
Proponents of this technology suggest that there is enough manure to displace the gasoline requirements of up to 16 million gas or diesel vehicles. It's both gross and brilliant all at once.
[Source: Wired | Photo: JelleS, CC 2.0]
The process goes something like this: Cows excrete their spent fuels as manure, which is then flushed out into a lagoon where microbes begin breaking it down, resulting in the production of methane gas. The gas is then further purified at a local refinery that strips out unwanted bits like carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide. After this final refining, the fuel is pressurized and fed into Cummins diesel engines that have been converted to run properly on methane gas.
Proponents of this technology suggest that there is enough manure to displace the gasoline requirements of up to 16 million gas or diesel vehicles. It's both gross and brilliant all at once.
[Source: Wired | Photo: JelleS, CC 2.0]
Sign in to post
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Continue