Ianben,
I see this;
"Apr 07, 2006 (The Akron Beacon Journal - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News via COMTEX) -- WOOSTER -- In its lifetime, a pig produces enough manure -- 10 pounds a day -- to yield up to 21 gallons of crude oil.
So could pig poop one day be fueling America's cars?
Yuanhui Zhang, an agricultural and biological engineer at the University of Illinois, thinks that's a possibility.
The researcher, who spoke Thursday at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, has been working for 10 years on a process to turn hog manure into crude oil.
Using thermochemical conversion, Zhang and his team heat and pressurize the manure in a reactor or an industrial-strength pressurized oven. The resulting product is a heavy crude oil that has more energy than ethanol and nearly as much as diesel.
"We're not there yet," Zhang said. "It's going to take more time and more money.... But the science looks workable."
The manure-to-oil process is working in the laboratory, he said, but more research is needed to eliminate technological and engineering problems.
A pilot project is being planned and probably will be carried out at a pig farm, Zhang said.
A furnace-sized piece of equipment would be large enough to handle the pig manure from a small farm, he said, and the oil could then be collected and shipped away for refining.
Turning manure into oil would do more than create a new energy source. It could also solve a problem for farmers -- getting rid of the manure, which now is mostly spread on farmland.
And producing oil could generate additional income for farmers, perhaps as much as $10 a pig, Zhang said.
The manure from America's 60 million pigs could be turned into 50 million barrels of oil a year, he said, and that could help reduce American dependence on foreign oil for use in vehicles and plastics.
So if pig manure can be made into oil, what about chicken and cow droppings?
More research is needed, but Zhang said all of America's farm manure could produce $8 billion worth of oil a year.
Research is also under way to determine if treated sewage sludge from New York City could be turned into oil, he said.
A handful of Wayne County dairy farmers, including Ed Stoll of Stoll Farms, had great interest in Zhang's research.
Stoll, who has 3,000 dairy cows in Baughman Township, said getting rid of manure is becoming increasingly difficult and more costly.
But Zhang's remedy is still a long way off, and that's discouraging, Stoll said.
Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com"
I see this;
"Apr 07, 2006 (The Akron Beacon Journal - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News via COMTEX) -- WOOSTER -- In its lifetime, a pig produces enough manure -- 10 pounds a day -- to yield up to 21 gallons of crude oil.
So could pig poop one day be fueling America's cars?
Yuanhui Zhang, an agricultural and biological engineer at the University of Illinois, thinks that's a possibility.
The researcher, who spoke Thursday at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, has been working for 10 years on a process to turn hog manure into crude oil.
Using thermochemical conversion, Zhang and his team heat and pressurize the manure in a reactor or an industrial-strength pressurized oven. The resulting product is a heavy crude oil that has more energy than ethanol and nearly as much as diesel.
"We're not there yet," Zhang said. "It's going to take more time and more money.... But the science looks workable."
The manure-to-oil process is working in the laboratory, he said, but more research is needed to eliminate technological and engineering problems.
A pilot project is being planned and probably will be carried out at a pig farm, Zhang said.
A furnace-sized piece of equipment would be large enough to handle the pig manure from a small farm, he said, and the oil could then be collected and shipped away for refining.
Turning manure into oil would do more than create a new energy source. It could also solve a problem for farmers -- getting rid of the manure, which now is mostly spread on farmland.
And producing oil could generate additional income for farmers, perhaps as much as $10 a pig, Zhang said.
The manure from America's 60 million pigs could be turned into 50 million barrels of oil a year, he said, and that could help reduce American dependence on foreign oil for use in vehicles and plastics.
So if pig manure can be made into oil, what about chicken and cow droppings?
More research is needed, but Zhang said all of America's farm manure could produce $8 billion worth of oil a year.
Research is also under way to determine if treated sewage sludge from New York City could be turned into oil, he said.
A handful of Wayne County dairy farmers, including Ed Stoll of Stoll Farms, had great interest in Zhang's research.
Stoll, who has 3,000 dairy cows in Baughman Township, said getting rid of manure is becoming increasingly difficult and more costly.
But Zhang's remedy is still a long way off, and that's discouraging, Stoll said.
Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com"
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