More news from the brown green front

More news from the brown green front

Posted 06.21.2006 by Dave

With gas prices being what they are, the geopolitical situation being what it is, and the future of fossil fuels being in a very tenuous place, the news media has been filled in recent months with a lot of different schemes for renewable energy. Clean coal, ethanol, solar, wind, and biodiesel are among the options being presented by talking heads on CNN and corporate video press releases blindly aired by your local action news team. This site has been ahead of the trend, reporting here and there for the last few years on various schemes to turn human and animal poop into energy. Today, obviously in honor of the Summer Stoolstice, Fortune/CNN reports on a few more companies trying to tap into the well of brown gold.

Cows produce eighteen gallons of poop a day. (And I thought my flu-induced diarrhea this weekend was bad!) With "Micrology" technology from a company called Environmental Power, cow poop and food waste can be digested to release methane. "One Wisconsin dairy farmer, with 875 cows, has installed a methane digester that produces enough electricity to power about 600 homes."

Adult humans only produce about a half-pound of poop a day. Nevertheless, it adds up quick. The article also discusses options for composting toilets that turn organic matter into fertilizer. The article concludes with a warning that these toilets cost upwards of $2,000; alas, it drops the ball by not mentioning Joseph Jenkins' Humanure system, which does a much better job than the fancy composting toilets, uses up a lot less real estate, requires a lot less installation, and can be installed for about 5% of the cost. The gist of his system: you poop in a bucket, cover it with sawdust, and put it in a big pile in the yard to decompose into fertilizer. (And, believe it or not, it's completely odorless!)

Babies produce god knows how much poop every day. The result: 18-20 BILLION diapers entering landfills annually. A company that can solve that problem will make a huge environmental impact indeed. Unfortunately, just because a company is marketing a clever product doesn't mean they're clever marketing people. gDiapers sells a dual diaper system in which the inner layer can be flushed with minimal environmental impact. But when asked what the "g" stands for, some buzzword-guzzling sales shill babbles that it represents "green and genuine, as well as baby-friendly words like giggle and groovy." Corporatespeak like that makes me wonder how well their product works trying to contain a spew of vomit.

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Show some poop support, or make a poop retort.

Double Flush (604) -- 06.21.2006

I've also heard of someone covering a hog lagoon with fiberglass to trap and burn the gases to heat the hog houses. Smart idea, really.

Seriously, with all the poop produced, there's got to be a way to make it useful. Instead of using bacteria to turn it into methane, why not burn the poop directly? I know that compost will spontaneouusly combust if it isn't kept mixed up. I've seen it happen.

Pooping in a bucket and covering it in sawdust would work quite well, so long as the sawdust covers all of the poop. I just wonder where all that sawdust is going to come from.

Diapers? Burn 'em. Use 'em for electricity or heating.

_______
"Double the flush, double the fun" --The Amazing Anus

daphne (3667) -- 06.21.2006

With all the animals I have here (prolific poopers, some of them), the concept of using poop appeals to me for the energy cost break.

The guinea pigs alone produce about a pound of poop every couple of days.

_______
.....hugging bunnies since 1969
www.daphneszoo.com

Turdologist (not verified) -- 06.21.2006

This issue has concerned me for a long while. The clean, fresh water we flush down the loo is totally unnecessary. By leaving the plug in the bath during a shower, I can gather up quite a lot of the water to flush away my waste matter. The water is soapy, and helps to keep the toilet clean, too, with less bleach.

As far as possible, I try to save urine by peeing into a jar, and then put it into a compost bag, which helps to break down weeds, especially grass cuttings.

I have also tried sitting on a bucket with an old toilet seat on top, in the shed, but decided that wasn't a good idea if I had been eating meat or fish, in case it attracted rats. I suppose that for anyone on a vegetarian diet it would be OK.

I live alone, and don't do any of this when people come to stay. I have one or two friends who have similar views, but when they come to stay, they and I use the 'conventional way'.

Ways have got to be devised to conserve energy and the earth's resources. But governments have got to give tax breaks and subsidise the expensive costs of conversion.

One British politician has advocated the use of urine on compost.

krzyzewskifan (55) -- 06.22.2006

Basically, your saying I will be able to poop into a tank in my car and use that to get to where i need to go. That is freaking brilliant, when it actually happens.

Thunderbox (884) -- 06.22.2006

Next thing we`ll see is people towing flatbeds with 4 cows on them, hosepipes from their assholes directing methane into the engine.

Poopgirl (78) -- 06.25.2006

I think that even if you use a toilet, poop produces energy. Kinetic (motion) energy. The energy used to run away from a turd-smelling toilet.
Poop on!

-Poopgirl