Pork, the other fuel!

Pork, the Other Alt Fuel
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Topic: Alt Fuel
A biodiesel refiner in Australia is living high on the hog -- and the sheep, and the cow.

Australian Farmers' Fuels is turning the fat (tallow) from animal carcasses into biodiesel. According to the Australian, it takes about a half dozen dead sheep to fill a tank, while a cow gives the most mpc (miles per carcass).

This gives new meaning to the road-bound lifestyle as being "on the lamb."

Intresting?

MMMMmmmmmm smells like bacon.

If we could only make cars run on turds....................

Ask and you shall receive.... I guess the process can also produce biodiesel

Crude oil from pig manure

I believe Finland has been using farm manure digesters to produce methane for some time. It lost popularity after WWII, but seems to be reemerging. I saw an interview with a Finland scientist discussing this, but I can't find any really good links. Here are a couple anyway that at least give an idea of how they work.

The farmers burn the methane to generate electricity and produce heat for their barns. In some cases, all the electricity and heat that they need, and then some electricity to sell.

http://www.mda.state.mn.us/feedlots/digester.htm
http://www.delaval.com/About_DeLaval/TheCompany/default.htm
http://www.loe.org/shows/shows.htm?programID=01-P13-00027#feature2 (go to Methane heading)

Mo,

We have a couple up in Vermont. One of the first was Foster Brothers Dairy farm.late 70's early 80's..The actually ferment the manure collect the methane then burn it..do their milking at night buy off peak power, then burn the gas during peak and sell the power..Also on Landfills Mid 80's out on long island in New York, At the time quality of the methane was poor, had big time engine cylinder issues with big CAT 3512 (large 12 cylinder engines)..Believe they have found ways to clean and deliver consistent fuel.

I think i mentioned once, when i was a green horn at work. A old farmer asked me if the jotul 3 vent free gas stove would run off of methane, it cracked me up. I was easily entertained at 23.

Vintage, That's interesting. I guess most of the farms are small scale, batch process oriented, but it is pretty impressive that a farm can be energy independent, or even produce a surplus.

Hey! I just put two and two together, maybe. Is Rutland, VT where Rutland hearth products originated?

MSG, I'm still easily amused, but a bit more difficult to arouse.

Originally Foster Brothers was collecting manure from a couple other farms..there has been a significant amount of consolidation no doubt....this was my 10th grade chemistry project..After they ferment the manure and collect the gas, it actually has more available nutrients to the soil..Most farms around here collect the stuff in a tank add water, let it set, then spray on fields..Also have to do this because of certain times of year cannot put on fields due to snow runoff..

We are not the home of "Rutland" products maybe it is Rutland, Mass or Iowa..Rutland, the other city!

Mo,

That Foster brothers is probably around 500 dairy cows..we got some around a 1000 and some with 10...

On separate topic, all this organic stuff is in big demand and to some extent it is increasing..

So we here in Utah with a huge pig farm down south could fuel our state with left overs? They sell remanents for humnan consumption at 30-60 cents per pund. Is this reducible? Would like to have a pig powered diesel to cruise the boulevarde.

Let's open up a deli on the side of the highway and sell bacon & egg sandwiches on a roll for breakfast... with the highway smelling like a frying pan full of bacon, we's make millions!

-- Mike