Comments on: Cargill Generates Sustainable Biogas from Cow Pies

By: Athenalea22

Athenalea22 — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 23:59:00 +0000

Love this article! I’m just wondering, is the numbers given (6,000 cows per 1,100 homes, and therefore offsetting 28,000 emissions) per year?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 19:47:00 +0000

Imagine! An American family with a sustainable sized house, small enough to have a payable mortgage, garden out back, super-insulation in the walls, and a methane burning engine making heat and electricity at the same time – like they do in Germany! The “Great American Corporate and Capitalist Propaganda Whore’s” ridiculous “American Dream” and her “sales pitch bull Shiite”, and McMansions with SUV’s and a swimming pool, are soon to die, and reality is soon to return to this land. Realistic, Diesel/hybrids for commuting still pollute less than gasoline cars, and CNG/hybrids will even do better, (Compressed Natural Gas) Practical rechargeable cars, smaller, made of plastics, are not far off either. Can America do this? China is not going to give her the choice! Proverbs 22:7 ! The Jews gave us their history, their Wisdom From The Ages. We did not listen, now the Chinese call the shots, have the economic power to destroy even our U.S. Dollar. Now we must adjust our lifestyle to suit them.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 22:52:16 +0000

Furthermore, Cargill is an evil company that controls more than a fourth of the meat-packing industry. They have been one of the most central players in the inelegant industrialization of our food system that is leading to the permanent destruction of our natural capital. They cheat their workers, advertising jobs in mexico, only to cooperate with local law enforcement to deport them and their families one at a time, so as not to disturb the production line. They wash our meat in ammonia, and fatten us with GMO-based corn-fed “food” that leads to cancer, heart disease, and reproductive harm.

By: Tina Casey

Tina Casey — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 23:24:13 +0000

yep and one source of methane is from the decomposition of untreated manure. The point of the biogas system is to capture methane that would otherwise be released through natural processes. The tightly controlled environment of the digesters speeds things up and allows for the efficient capture of methane, which can then be used as fuel.

By: Tina Casey

Tina Casey — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 23:19:17 +0000

good question, partially answered by the use of solids left over from the biogas process as an inert (non-smelly) fertilizer

By: Tina Casey

Tina Casey — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 23:17:22 +0000

yep that can be done with leftovers from the biogas process and here’s a link for more info: http://www.epa.gov/agstar

By: Tina Casey

Tina Casey — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 23:15:21 +0000

Hi Christopher thank you for your comment. I mentioned AgSTAR in a previous post and I’ll update this one with a link to the program.

By: Rick

Rick — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 18:02:05 +0000

Cute cow in the picture, but that is a very misleading image. Unfortunately, this technology will have at is base the cruel treatment of the Confined Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) and a flawed assumption that cows somehow cause global warming. Cruelty and stupidity isn’t green…or is it?

By: Frank Hanlan

Frank Hanlan — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 18:01:33 +0000

I wonder if the methane produced by a biogas digester could be used to provide heat for greenhouses in northern climates to make them more competitive?

By: Chris Voell

Chris Voell — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 16:08:09 +0000

If you’d like to learn more about manure digesters, or where these projects are currently located around the country, visit the EPA AgSTAR Program at http://www.epa.gov/agstar. AgSTAR is a voluntary program to advance the capture and use of methane from livestock manure.

By: Sven

Sven — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 00:26:44 +0000

What about using the manure as fertilizer?

By: DS

DS — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 00:19:19 +0000

I am curious to know how the shift to biogas will effect the health of topsoil.

Its my understanding that manure is usually spread to help fertilize crops and keep the ‘cycle of life’ going – preventing ‘bleaching’ of soil nutrients over crop cycles and enriching topsoil.

Removing this ‘additive’ to help prevent soil erosion could be harmful in the long run as crops are still pulled from the same grounds but with fewer and fewer nutrients replaced.

Ronald Wright’s CBC Massey Lecture ‘A Short History of Progress’ touches on this subject.

Food for thought…

Cheers

By: Tyler

Tyler — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 19:10:57 +0000

Isn’t methane still a greenhouse gas according to the EPA? http://www.epa.gov/methane/