The Energy Of Cow Manure

There's Gold On Them There Hills

By Joseph Friedrichs, 9-06-07

There are an estimated 120,000 dairy cows on Oregon’s dairy farms producing a staggering 14.4 million pounds of cow feces each and every day.

These are the animals you see roaming the gentle prairies and hillsides. The ones munching grass with bits of grainy saliva dangling from their mouths. The same creatures unleashing massive, steaming piles of digested plants.

Once returned to the earth, cow dung begins to decompose and release methane. The gas glides into the atmosphere where it serves as a potent greenhouse gas. Yes, cow crap is heating the planet one stinking turd at a time.

To combat the daily abundance of methane freed from the dung, NW Natural - a supplier of natural gas to people in Oregon and southwest Washington - said it is launching a carbon offset program for its customers that will harness the power of manure.

How it works is NW Natural will use a “biodigester” that replicates a cow’s stomach to reduce mounds of waste into gas or electricity, according to the company’s Web site.

It is a multi-million dollar project still in the early stages. NW Natural gas customers can volunteer to pay extra, say $6 per bill, and the money will be used to help develop the biodigester systems, the company stated.

A five-year pilot program to get the project rolling received state approval last week and NW Natural customers can sign up next week, the Associated Press reported.

In perhaps the greatest statement of all time, NW Natural said it likes the idea taking a problem such as the smell and pollution from cow feces and turning it into a positive. It’s kind of like finding the beauty in killing a deer with a motor vehicle, you know, because it means the coyotes and other scavengers score an easy meal.

Although we here at NewWest.Net/Bend fully support the idea of helping to save the planet through these biodigesters, we’re more excited about the idea of groups of scientists and gas-company executives sitting around having very serious discussions about poop.

It makes one remember how comical the world truly is.

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By Joseph Friedrichs, 9-06-07 | comments (5) | email story | print story

Comments

By Bob, 9-06-07

Methane gas is a serious problem with our overdependence on meat for food. It has been said that it is even more serious than oil consumption although I have no proof. This is way out of step with the history of mankind which was heavily dependent on plant food for sustenance. Our longer digestive tract underscores that fact. Carnivores have short digestive tracts (3-4 feet).

By Debby, 9-06-07

According to the folks at PETA -"Raising animals for food is also a water-polluting process. One dairy cow produces more than 100 pounds of excrement per day. The animals raised for food in the U.S. produce 130 times the excrement of the entire human population of this country. Their excrement is more concentrated than human excrement and is often contaminated with herbicides, pesticides, toxic chemicals, hormones, antibiotics, and so on. These massive farmed-animal factories generally don’t have waste-treatment plants. Instead, the manure is poured onto land or into giant lagoons, where it often spills over into local waterways, kills fish, and poisons the drinking water. Streams and rivers all over the middle of our country that once were clear and full of fish are now filthy and lifeless because of manure runoff from factory farms. There’s an enormous “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico now, where no fish or other animals live. This is largely because of the enormous amount of animal waste that has flowed from factory farms down rivers and streams and into the gulf." Farm Management is the main problem when it comes to LiveStock. If we would all support the local farmers who are trying to maintain the land and stop supporting the Factory Farmers everyone would benefit- the animals, the farmer and the comsumer. Before you chew that next Ribeye find out the history and see where it came from.

By Tom Fish, 9-06-07

What should have been reserached into wind and solar will be wasted on cow dung. A shame.

By Juniper Berry, 9-07-07

Isn't it, "...them thar hills".?

By joelsk44039, 9-10-07

Our company develops projects to convert dairy manure to electricity via a different process that eliminates the potential for odors and pollution. The manure is converted entirely to synthetic gas which is used to make electricity. The non-volatile sterile "ash" remaining after conversion can be safely applied to farm fields or used for other commercial or industrial purposes.

No pollution, no lagoons, no odor, no flies or rats. And the electricity is "renewable," which offsets coal or natural gas.

http://www.randaenergysolutions.com

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There's Gold On Them There Hills