Poopie Power!!!

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

Why don't we use methane digesters as a source of renewable energy? Releasing Methane into the atmosphere is supposedly 10x as bad as car exhaust, so why not burn it instead? There is no shortage of sh*t in the world, and if you had a septic system, you could theoretically fuel your car on pork and beans! Seriously though, if you think about it, all you would need to do is tap into the top of a sealed vessel that the sh*t goes into and route it to a air compressor capable of meaningful pressure. Route the compressor's exhaust to a large tank, and then all you have to do is fuel a CNG tank mounted to the car! People have run cars on CNG and Propane for a long time, why not make your own out of a waste product you produce already? If you have a dairy farm, now you have a new use for all that manure your cows make every day. You could use it to run your tractors, trucks, etc. instead of paying the oil companies for their product. It would save you a lot of money. Plus, think of all the sewers we have in our cities and their ability to generate massive amounts of cheap, renewable energy!!! Add to this maybe a stratified wood gassifier if you have access to the materials, and you could run much of your life off grid.

(And yes, I am actually serious about this one)

 

[KrisW]

I don't think you get enough volume to be practical unless you have a farm. I have seen pig farms that use methane from their manure to power burners, boilers and heaters.

Who do you think would screw us worse? Big oil or big manure?!

hehehehe

 

[megaladon6]

and we thought we were in a world of sh*t now!

 

[Geesie]

Why don't we use methane digesters as a source of renewable energy? Releasing Methane into the atmosphere is supposedly 10x as bad as car exhaust, so why not burn it instead? There is no shortage of sh*t in the world, and if you had a septic system, you could theoretically fuel your car on pork and beans! Seriously though, if you think about it, all you would need to do is tap into the top of a sealed vessel that the sh*t goes into and route it to a air compressor capable of meaningful pressure. Route the compressor's exhaust to a large tank, and then all you have to do is fuel a CNG tank mounted to the car! People have run cars on CNG and Propane for a long time, why not make your own out of a waste product you produce already? If you have a dairy farm, now you have a new use for all that manure your cows make every day. You could use it to run your tractors, trucks, etc. instead of paying the oil companies for their product. It would save you a lot of money. Plus, think of all the sewers we have in our cities and their ability to generate massive amounts of cheap, renewable energy!!! Add to this maybe a stratified wood gassifier if you have access to the materials, and you could run much of your life off grid.

(And yes, I am actually serious about this one)

Farm-manure and landfill methane capture is being seriously looked at these days. The problem is that even though fuel prices are rising to ridiculous levels, it's only now getting to the point where it is more economical to do this. According to the EPA's numbers, landfills are the largest single source of human-generated methane in the atmosphere.
Hog farms account for about 87% of livestock-generated methane.

In short, it is coming in the near future as energy costs give an incentive to build the infrastructure for this.

 

[Silent viewer]

great, now the gov is going to figure out how to tax us for sh*t.....literally!

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

Well, it only makes sense to tap this formerly unused resource that we all generate. It may not solve all of our problems, but it is another piece of the biomass fuels puzzle to be put together.