How Cow Poop Can Revolutionize Electricity
By: Kawtar Karmouni
Tags: Animals, Environment, Energy, Climate Change, Renewable Energy

There are 3 methods that entail how cow poop can create electricity:

Biodigesters Incineration Gasification

Biodigesters

Biodigesters are utilized to digest the organic material biologically. Sounds like a clump of biology terms jargon? Here’s something to think about while in the shower: A tank with teeth as sharp as a shark that consumes feces to spew fertilizer and biogas out of its ears as a result.

Of course, the picture above is an oversimplification of the actual operations involved. The manure (poop) is first fed into a system sink, then, to turn it into biogas, bacteria/microorganisms start to digest and breakdown the organic matter by fermentation.

Fermentation

Fermentation is the chemical process whereby molecules such as glucose (sugar) disintegrate anaerobically (in the absence of oxygen). This procedure is vital in biodigesters, because without them, no biogas composes. So in a sense, fermentation is the mother of the biogas (while fertilizer is adopted). In short, sugar is broken down without oxygen to create biogas!

Because this is done anaerobically, the tank has to be put underground and made with a material that confines all of the manure. So what can be used for this purpose? Concrete! After being put in the digester, the bacteria breaks down the organic matter in the waste. Not to mention, cow manure isn’t the only thing that can be broken down in the digester. Rotten vegetables, such as old lettuce is also a great alternative since it contains a lot of glucose.

What is the result?

When the microorganisms are finished with their lunch, what is left is biogas and a mix of around 60% of methane. Red flags must be popping out of your head when you hear methane. However, the methane gas is not emitted into the atmosphere, it is collected into an engine and then converted into power. Even though it is a gas, meaning it has dispersed particles that will want to take as much space as possible, a confined pipe from the digester sends methane to an engine to create power and heat.

Think of methane like an idle uncle that likes to take space on couches. So, it’s then confined to pipes and tanks to avoid mishap.

Biodigesters might be able to control the idleness of uncle methane, but they prove to be very very expensive! In fact, building a digester costs $1.1 million. But the return saves farmers $152 000 a year, meaning it will take about 7.5 years to get the initial amount back. While it may be very costly, in the long run, it’s a good investment in terms of savings.

Incineration

This method dates back to centuries ago! It’s the burning of biomass (anything organic that can be used as fuel) to create power and heat. The cow poop is firstly dried, this ensures that we can get the maximum amount of energy, moisture/wetness decreases energy potential of manure. Whatever fume that results is applied to a production called cogeneration.

Uhh, what does co… mean?

Cogeneration is when two energy sources are being produced by one single fuel source. So exactly what manure does!

CH4 or Biogas -> Electricity -> Heat

There are also some ashes that persist. So instead of simply throwing them out (like the ashes they are), they can be used as fertilizer in farms. With that being said, we can evidently see that this procedure is extremely versatile.

Gasification

No, I won’t make any puns about gasification involved with manure… But I will say, this method is probably the most extensive. It starts with the poop being converted to syngas (synthesis gas), which is a combination of hydrogen, carbon monoxide and more often times than not: carbon dioxide.

If you know anything about syngas, you know that it’s really bad for the environment. Especially the fact that CO2 is emitted into the atmosphere during the process. Plus, the CO2 emitted is higher than conventional natural gases (like uncle methane for example).

Syngas is like the person that no one invited to the party because it always ruins the overall ambiance (or environment if you’re feeling witty).

Pros and Cons of Each Method

Thoughts

From looking at the pros and cons list, we can see that all three of these methods shares two things in common: they’re all expensive but effective.

Since converting cow manure into energy is still relatively new, the commercialization aspect still hasn’t boomed yet, explaining it’s high price. However, the more consumers that get ahold of this energy source (targeted at farmers) and the longer that it stays on the market, the price will invariably plummet.

The price isn’t something that is constant, we’ve seen the decreasing prices of current solar panels already happen.

Also, in order to make this energy source more widespread, we’re going to have to commercialize cow manure… I know, that seems near impossible.

But, if we just clip our nose with clothespins while helping reduce the amount of fossil fuels that are currently being used for electricity sources, it’s a win-win!

Studies have shown that in a farm with approximately 1000 cows, cow poop has enough power and potential to create 250–300 kW of electricity. That’s enough to operate and power 300 houses!

Although cow poop doesn’t exactly fit into our society’s aesthetics (shape, size, smell etc.), it’s essential to understand how this may help to the contribution of preventing global warming.