Cow Poop: More Electric Power Potential than Wind and Solar?
Converting the U.S.’s ample and renewable volumes of cow manure into biogas could provide as much as 3 percent of the nation’s electricity needs, say two researchers at the University of Texas at Austin.
In a new study published in the online journal Environmental Research Letters, Amanda Cuéllar and Michael Webber conclude that harnessing the full potential of cow poop power could not only help generate as much — or more — electricity as wind and solar power do today, but could greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The study, “Cow Power: The Energy and Emissions Benefits of Converting Manure to Biogas,” points out that most of the one billion-plus tons of U.S. livestock manure currently goes to waste in disposal lagoons or the open air, where decomposition releases vast amounts of carbon dioxide and methane. If farms and ranches would instead use anaerobic digestion to convert that poop into biogas to run microturbines, they could generate anywhere between 68 to 108 kilowatt-hours of electricity for the nation, Cuéllar and Webber conclude.
Equally beneficial, the researchers say, would be the impact on the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. Livestock manure now generates anywhere from 51 to 118 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, and those emissions have been steadily rising over the past decade and a half. Tapping poop for power could reverse that trend.
“Despite the multiple benefits of anaerobic digestion as a waste management strategy, source of renewable energy, and mitigant for greenhouse gas emissions, these combined benefits have never been quantified at a national scale for the U.S.,” Cuéllar and Webber write. “In light of the criticism that has been leveled … by the U.S. Departments of Energy and Agriculture that advocates the commitment of 1.3 billion tons of biomass to producing biofuels, biogas production from manure has the less-controversial benefit of reusing an existing waste source and the potential to improve the environment.”
To learn more, read the complete study here.
What a great idea. Many people are unaware of the huge contribution that cows, and other methane sources, make towards greenhouse gas emissions. This would not only address that issue, but provide energy as well! This idea shouldn’t stop with cows though. There is also significant potential to harness municipal solid waste (MSW) for energy.
Follow the lead on the cows!