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Researchers Make Gasoline From Cow Dung

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the something-stinks-about-this dept.

McDrewbie writes "Yahoo! News has an article about Japanese researchers extracting a small amount of gasoline from 3.5oz of cow dung. The process uses application of high heat and pressure. Hopefully, when more information is released, we can find out how much energy it takes to produce this gasoline and how energy efficient the process is."

3 of 201 comments (clear)

  1. oh so they discovered something new by mgabrys_sf · · Score: 4, Interesting

    So new we have an active refienery in the US.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_depolymerizat ion

    At least Japan knows how to PR the tech - you never hear about it here - which is just sad.

    1. Re:oh so they discovered something new by admactanium · · Score: 4, Interesting
      So new we have an active refienery in the US.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_depolymerizat ion

      At least Japan knows how to PR the tech - you never hear about it here - which is just sad.

      actually there was a story (maybe two) about thermal depolymerization on slashdot years ago. that's where i first read about the technology. it was prompted by an article in discover magazine about their first plant in carthage, MO. it's a pretty good article and i'm surprised we haven't heard more about how the carthage plant has been doing. all i've been able to find about it recently is that they had to do some modifications to the exhaust system because the smell was bothering the residents too much (which is probably quite a feat in a place that produces livestock).

      i actually thought the increase in oil prices would probably help this technology along. the only thing anyone has questioned about the process is the cost efficiency of making oil from thermal depolymerization versus the cost of just buying it from opec countries and/or successfully mining it from the oil shale in canada. i think the depolymerization method obviously has a lot more positives in its favor.

      i also read that the livestock manufacturers, now understanding that their waste was actually useful and profitable for someone, had decided to charge for their waste product rather than just give it away, which was at least somewhat assumed by the cost analysis of depolymerization to begin with. even though it made sense at the time to assume that rather than paying for people to remove biological waste, they would rather have someone do it for free or even pay them for it, you can never overestimate the greed of corporations. i sure hope the technology continues to develop until it becomes more cost efficient. even if it can only reduce our needs for oil a small percentage, that would be a significant difference in our reliance on opec.

  2. Re:Won't all the methane from the cows be worse? by Draknor · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Great idea! I think the government should let the markets decide, and stop subsidizing oil companies.

    After all, the market has clearly decided that the big oil companies, with their record-breaking profits, are the appropriate market solution to our energy problems. So why is the government interfering with the market and giving away $7 billion to the oil companies?