Researchers Make Gasoline From Cow Dung

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."

Comments

Bullshit!

[LiquidCoooled]

Its amazing what scientists can create.
I wonder if we could just connect this directly up to the chairs in SCO's offices and solve the worlds energy problems!

oh so they discovered something new

[mgabrys_sf]

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.

Re:oh so they discovered something new

[admactanium]

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.

Re:oh so they discovered something new

[therblig]

I never thought I would see my hometown mentioned on Slashdot! The Carthage, MO plant did have an awful odor that made people sick. A Kansas City alternative newspaper wrote an interesting article on that smell. Later, the plant was actually made to shut down until they dealt with the smell. I haven't been back yet, but I have been told that the smell is pretty much gone, now.

Befor this, Carthage never had an issue with a bad smell. The parent post is a little off - it's not a livestock town. It is a big poultry town, and if you got a Butterball turkey, it may have gone through Carthage. However, odor was never a big problem from the poultry plants until they took the turkey remains and tried to turn them into petrolium.

We tried that in Husbandry 104

[BadAnalogyGuy]

But the cows kept getting really sick from all the gasoline we were feeding them.

Oil companies?

[merikari]

Let's see the oil companies trying to shus this pile of steaming cow dung.

That didn't come out right.

Finally, managers can become useful.

[Vengeance]

'Cause with all the BS they're spewing, I think we've solved the world's energy problems.

Not efficient yet

[Mostly a lurker]

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.

TFA is very clear that the process is not efficient at this stage. The hope, apparently, is that the process might be improved over a five year timeframe to be commercially viable. I am skeptical even of that given the temperature and pressure numbers given.

So what?

[pleumann]

Slashdot makes articles from cow dung all the time.

Same problem as with other "alternative fuels"

[Opportunist]

Even worse, actually. If we tried to use it instead of normal oil, we'd have to cover the entire earth, actually more land, with cattle.

Finding alternative sources for fuel is only one part of the equation. We most of all need ways to reduce our consumption. There is no way to keep production at the level we currently have, so we either have a plan how to use less oil (not only as gas, but think of all the plastic) or we'll be facing VERY expensive oil products soon.

What is new?

[ozamosi]

Could anyone care to tell me exactly what is new here?

I live in Sweden. Our busses (all our busses, a few cars) doesn't run on fossil fuel - they run on human shit. If anybody would care to go and pick up all the cow dung around, I'm sure it could be used in the shit-to-fuel-factory as well.

Up untill recently they did, however, use cows as fuel: they mixed the shit with animal fat from slaughter houses when they made the fuel.

Re:Makes Sense

[jejones]

Great I can't wait till I can buy me a Bottle of Selsun Poo...

Well, at least it won't be sham poo... it'll be real poo!

solution to another eternal dilemma as well

[Fennario]

from TFA:

"In a separate experiment revealing another unusual business potential for cow dung, another group of researchers has successfully extracted an aromatic ingredient of vanilla from cattle dung, said Miki Tsuruta, a Sekisui Chemical Co. spokeswoman. The extracted ingredient, vanillin, can be used as fragrance in shampoo and candles, she said."

The thing about these Japanese corporate researchers is, they all think that their shit doesn't stink.

Not efficient yet, but that mightn't be important.

[Mr. Roadkill]

Although the process is not particularly efficient at present, it could be of significant benefit anyway.

How?

Well, although we probably have really nifty technologies now and coming up for producing energy from solar, geothermal, tidal, wind, hydro, ocean thermal gradients and even new safer nuclear reactors, we don't really have any effective way of making that energy portable, easily storable or able to be distributed through existing infrastructure. If we can get really cheap and really clean electricity, and use that to produce oil products from purpose-grown organic matter (like algae ponds) and/or organic waste (raw sewage, agricultural waste, cannery waste etc) we might be on a winner. Provided we don't start grinding up coal to make crude oil this way, the whole process should be carbon-neutral and a convenient way of storing energy in a portable liquid form that we already know how to store, ship and use.

Much cows = Many beefs

[TheGhostOfDerrida]

"If we tried to use it instead of normal oil, we'd have to cover the entire earth, actually more land, with cattle

Yes, but one of the better side-effects of such large scale cattle farming would porterhouse at about forty cents a pound (U.S.)

(by the way, I just made that price up; there wasn't any real calculation concerning real statistics and/or numbers of any sort involved. It was a joke. Porterhouse is fine cut of beef, and, as such, tends to be a little pricier. Using the logic of "More cattle = more beef = greater supply of porterhouse = lower price", I was able to pull a low number out of my ass. I hope you're all happy, I think I just killed any humor this joke may have had. But, because every time I make a joke on this site somebody feels the need to try to get deep about either the failings-of-man-as-a-whole or the-lies-that-science-is-made-from, I thought I'd try one last attempt at saving them the trouble. It's only a joke. It's only ever a joke. If you comment on a joke, it should either be a comment taking the joke further, or telling the comedian that they aren't funny. One should not respond to a joke on a forum such as this with a deep and mostly unrelated philosophic dialogue about two or three of the words used. That's bad forum ettiquete. Trespassers will be violated, violators will be shot, offer void in texas as I don't believe in texas, and please see official gamepiece for complete rules and restrictions that may apply in my/your/his or her area. If you would like to request the rules and restrictions in French, German, Russian, Hebrew, Japanese, or Serbo-Croatian, please send self addressed stamped envelope taped to the front of a postcard with a written request for aforementioned info to the address provided. Thanks for playing.)
~ken

Not quite

[Andy Dodd]

What happened is that in doing the cost/benefit analysis of the TDP plant for turkey offal, the analysts were counting on pending U.S. legislation that would ban the use of animal waste as animal feed. (Similar to laws that have been enacted in nearly every other country in order to combat mad cow disease.)

In the end, the law died out (a Bad Thing for U.S. meat consumers - agricultural industry money won out over concerns for public health.), and as a result what was originally going to become biological waste potentially classified as a biohazard which companies would have to PAY to dispose of, the status quo of being able to use animal leftovers as feed for other animals remained. The new oil plant isn't what made people decide to charge for their animal waste, they were ALREADY doing it.

In short, an increase in demand didn't cause the cost effectiveness of the TDP plant in Carthage to fail, but lack of an expected decrease in demand did.

That ain't even the HALF of it!

[NoData]

Its amazing what scientists can create.

Oh the ass dump to gas pump tech is nothin. Did you RTFA?! There was far more disturbing technology at the end. Check this out, clart :

In a separate experiment revealing another unusual business potential for cow dung, another group of researchers has successfully extracted an aromatic ingredient of vanilla from cattle dung, said Miki Tsuruta, a Sekisui Chemical Co. spokeswoman. The extracted ingredient, vanillin, can be used as fragrance in shampoo and candles, she said.

Wow. Brings a whole new meaning to "tastes like shit."

Re:Won't all the methane from the cows be worse?

[Draknor]

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?

Re:Won't all the methane from the cows be worse?

[menkhaura]

I'm Brazilian, living in Brazil. Two points:

Brazil runs most of its cars on sugar cane extract

This "extract" is ethanol, exactly the same substance that makes you go high on booze. It can be produced from almost anything that produces sugar, not only sugar cane.
Besides, most cars down here are run on good old petroleum extract, because alcohol production is somewhat uncertain. However, our gas has 20% alcohol, and every car here has to drink that.

Then again, Brazil isn't run by millionaires who are more interested in increasing their millions than actually imporoving things.

How so very wrong... Granted, we are not quite a Banana Republic, but we are Latin America, and our politicians are not distinguished by putting the People's interests ahead of their own.

Cheers.

Re:Won't all the methane from the cows be worse?

[cbiltcliffe]

Won't all the methane from the cows be worse?

When Europeans firs came to this continent, there were bison all over the place. They're much bigger than the average cow, and fart, belch, and shit a lot more, too.

There was never a problem with global warming, pollution, or any of this stuff until we fell in love with cars. Back in the early days of America, people got around by horse. Horses fart and shit all the time, even when you're not using them to go anywhere. Why didn't we have global warming in 1885?

The reason is, because the "farms are bad because cows fart methane which is causing global warming" is propaganda started by either animal rights groups (for obvious reasons), or the government (so we don't have to give up oil). The fact that this propaganda happens to be beneficial to both groups is probably the only reason it's still around. They're both pushing it, for apparently completely independent reasons, so people think it must be true.