Semi trucks converted to run on biomethane from cow manure
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]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
jharlan 8:36PM (2/20/2009)
Do you suppose the dinosaurs and the buffalo did that before there were any Republicans to blame it on? Seriously, these guys have figured out a comparative advantage. It's an interim breakthrough. Atmospheric methane I have heard is worse than CO2, so breaking methane down into water and CO2 helps. It's a form of recycling. Now, if they could figure out a way to make a profit using atmospheric CO2, we would really have something. Nothing works better than the profit motive (or greed as some of you self righteous jackasses call it).
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VoiToi 4:07AM (2/21/2009)
> Now, if they could figure out a way to make a profit using atmospheric CO2, we would really have something.
Hey, what about agribusiness and forestry, they figured out a way to make a profit using atmospheric CO2 before thousands of years.
harlanx6 1:21PM (2/21/2009)
Good point!
Carney 11:34AM (2/23/2009)
Ethanol and biomass derived methanol also use atmospheric CO2 to make vehicle fuel.
Max 6:45PM (2/20/2009)
If human excrement was used for the same purpose, that would meet the requirements of tens of millions more cars.
Chicago alone produces 80 tons of crap every day......that's 29,200 tons a year.
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Chris M 10:39PM (2/20/2009)
Most cities and towns are now using methane producing digesters in their sewage treatment plants, it usually produces enough methane to power the treatment plant, but not much else.
Cows are a lot bigger than people, and produce more solid waste.
Luke 7:33PM (2/20/2009)
Why stop with cows. Politicians have been a constant source of BS, and they tend to congregate in localized areas.
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ale 11:22AM (2/21/2009)
Man, if we could just do that, the Capitol building be nuclear waste facility... i mean um, a power plant, a power plant of gigantic proportions...
Lauren 7:34PM (2/21/2009)
Luke, you're my kind of guy!
gorr 8:34PM (2/20/2009)
I said to multiply by 2 the tonnage of manure with green algae farming to make fuel, is that clear, limpid and simple. With 1 pound of manure you obtain 2 pounds of green algae mud because water is a constitutant of green algae. With their method of converting manure dirrectly to methane the ratio of mass is 1 to 1 only. And it's easier to sell because cars buying fuels from green sticky mud algae don't need to be converted with an additionnal tank.
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CarbonBlack 5:30AM (2/21/2009)
Step 1-Get a truckload of cows
Step 2-Get lots of rubber hoses
Step 3-Insert into all cow's rectum
Step 4-Run all tubing to converted engine
Step 5-Start driving with a near unlimited source of methane
If the amount of methane is running low, stop by the "bovine fueling station" for cattle feed!
You can raise cattle for sale, and power your truck for free!
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Carney 11:32AM (2/23/2009)
A better idea is to use the cow waste to make methanol, which can be made from ANY biomass without exception, today, with no further research necessary.
Then react the methanol with itself to form dimethyl ether.
DME is an excellent diesel fuel, burning cleanly without soot, black smoke, or other particulates, and with no sulfur or other polluting foulness. It has a much better cetane rating (60) than ordinary petro-diesel.
And while it has lower mileage (easily compensated for with bigger tanks) and needs to be stored at somewhat higher pressure (5 atmospheres, also done relatively easily, and no less burdensome than the airtight containers a gaseous fuel like methane would need), DME fits perfectly into an overall conversion to an alcohol-based economy wherein a wide variety of waste biomass gets turned into methanol.
Lots of that methanol would be used directly for ordinary flex fuel cars, and some of it would become DME diesel to power large trucks, trains, and ships.
And DME can also be used to make ethylene and propylene, the basic feedstocks for modern chemistry, representing over half the worldwide plastic market.
Polyethylene is used to make cheap stuff like toys, food storage, and plastic bags. Polypropylene is used to make higher quality plastic and synthetic fabrics. Imagine - guilt free plastic!
That's why in a broader context using DME is a better way to go for turning livestock waste or human sewage into truck fuel; it fits neatly into getting our economy off of petroleum and onto renewable alcohol.
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