Got Gas?
Sometimes collecting poo is the fast track to free fuel
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Corn can be made into a lot of things from plastic to biofuel. But not every farmer is in the business of raising maize, and corn-based biofuel had been criticized for diverting food from hungry mouths to even hungrier fuel tanks. A farmer in Lindsay, California pulled up his britches, and figured out how to use what he’s got an excess of in his own back forty–cow poo–and he’s using that to fuel his milk tankers. Hilarides Dairy announced that it’s converted two 18-wheelers to run on biomethane produced from cow manure. On the Hilrades Farm, “output” from the farm’s 10,000 cows produces enough methane to replace 650 gallons of fuel each day.
Wondering if your family has a similar excess–but not from cows? if there is any use for the “blue bag” contents hikers are asked to carry out from Rainier and Denali? Maybe soon. City officials in Oslo, Norway, are planning to turn 80 municipal buses into methane burners. Their planed source of fuel: human waste.