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Toyota's New Power Plant Will Create Clean Energy From Manure (usatoday.com)
schwit1 shares a report from Futurism: Japanese automobile giant Toyota is making some exciting moves in the realm of renewable, clean energy. The company is planning to build a power plant in California that turns the methane gas produced by cow manure into water, electricity, and hydrogen. The project, known as the Tri-Gen Project, was unveiled at this year's Los Angeles Auto Show. The plant, which will be located at the Port of Long Beach in California, will be "the world's first commercial-scale 100% renewable power and hydrogen generation plant," writes USA Today. Toyota is expecting the plant to come online in about 2020.
The plant is expected to have the capability to provide enough energy to power 2,350 average homes and enough fuel to operate 1,500 hydrogen-powered vehicles daily. The company is estimating the plant to be able to produce 2.35 MW of electricity and 1.2 tons of hydrogen each day. The facility will also be equipped with one of the largest hydrogen fueling stations in the world. Toyota's North America group vice president for strategic planning, Doug Murtha, says that the company "understand[s] the tremendous potential to reduce emissions and improve society."
The plant is expected to have the capability to provide enough energy to power 2,350 average homes and enough fuel to operate 1,500 hydrogen-powered vehicles daily. The company is estimating the plant to be able to produce 2.35 MW of electricity and 1.2 tons of hydrogen each day. The facility will also be equipped with one of the largest hydrogen fueling stations in the world. Toyota's North America group vice president for strategic planning, Doug Murtha, says that the company "understand[s] the tremendous potential to reduce emissions and improve society."
The cows exist either way.
True, but they don't exist in Long Beach. The poop will have to be hauled in. This sounds like a publicity stunt rather than a real attempt to help the environment.
This will take waste that would normally generate methane
A cow patty decaying in a field does not generate methane. It only generates methane if it decays in anaerobic conditions.
"Walter, I love you, but sooner or later, you’re going to have to face the fact you’re a goddamn moron."
You may have heard a rule-of-thumb is that it takes 1.5 to 2 acres to feed a cow calf pair for 12 months.
As a last resort, we can always resort to math:
There were 92 million grazing cattle in the US herd for 2016, sharing a total of just south of 800 million acres of range & pasture land with dairy farms, sheep, goats, and horses. Let's generously say that beef producers occupy 50% of the available free range. 400,000,000 acres/92,000,000 cattle is 4 cow/calf units per acre, one third to one half of the optimal average required for sustained range-only feeding.
Where do you thing they make up the shortfall?
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
There are about a zillion cattle ranches within 200 miles of Long Beach. Until I moved out here to the Central Coast, I had no idea just how big ranching is here.
If you drive Hwy 101 or Hwy 5 from San Luis Obispo (where I live) to Long Beach, you will see tons of cattle and horses. Don't do the drive today, though, because fires have closed down 101 through Ventura and Hwy 5 through Castalc Junction. I know these things because I'm supposed to catch a plane at LAX tomorrow and ain't nothing moving through there. Not even Amtrak, because the smoke from the fire is so hazardous. I may have to take the Surfliner up to SFO to fly out.
You are welcome on my lawn.