How To Fight Climate Change With Cow Dung

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Cow manure contains methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Farmers who collect and burn methane keep it out of the atmosphere while generating clean electricity.
Added March 26, 2008

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Step 1.
Collect the poop

Collect the cow poop. Large confinement dairies and feedlots have the most concentrated manure piles.
Step 2.
Put the poop in a tank

With a special scraper, put the fresh poop down a drain leading to a digester tank.
Step 3.
Make poop soup

Heat the poop to about 98 degrees.
Step 4.
Let it stew

Let the manure’s natural juices digest the organic matter for one to three weeks.
Step 5.
Separate gas from solids

Use a machine to separate the methane gas from the liquids and solids in the tank.
Step 6.
Burn the gas

Burn the methane in a generator, creating clean electricity for use on the farm. Or sell it to the electric company.
As carbon markets grow, selling carbon credits will be a great way to earn extra cash for clean energy.
Step 7.
Sell fiber as mulch

The leftover fiber from the digesting process does not smell! It can be dried out and used or sold as mulch.
Step 8.
Recycle the water

The remaining liquid is full of nutrients; water can be separated out and recycled. The rest can be spread on fields or sold as fertilizer.
In 2007, U.S. farms made 275 million kilowatt-hours of electricity from cow poop, enough to power more than 25,000 households.