Comments on: Manure power goes live in Texas

After some delays, Microgy starts to ship natural gas made out of cow manure.

[shoffmueller]

Misleading title

I though this article was going to be about the politicians in Austin.

[billmosby]

OK

This could be good. I suppose they are profitable, or is it a bit
early?

[marenlc]

Manure's friendly in the right context

I take serious issue with the remark that "manure's nobody's
friend." It's a pollutant on large industrial dairy farms and
feedlots, which also happen to be inhumane for the livestock
and unhealthy for both animals and people (e.g. antibiotic
resistance because the crowded conditions make animals
continually sick, and BSE/CJD because animals are fed totally
inappropriate substances, E. coli contamination at CAFOs). On
small, diversified farms, manure is a valuable resource!

Read Michael Pollan's _Ominivore's Dilemma_ for a glimpse at
these two very different worlds.

Until the day when most food is grown on small diversified
farms near where it's consumed (instead of the now-typical
1500 miles that put an enormous amount of carbon into the
atmosphere), it's great that somebody has come up with
something useful to do with the massive amounts of excrement
from the big "farms" instead of sullying aquifers -- but it would
be far better to reduce the scale of those operations in the first
place.

One man's trash is another one's treasure...

[MacPgmr]

At least one error?

"Manure is also nobody's friend. It can cause algal blooms--an increase in algae in aquatic systems--and other problems."

Algal blooms is caused by excess phosphorus. The methane in natual gas is CH4. Do you see any P in that formula? The phosphorus remains and will probably be land-applied just the way the manure originally would have been, meaning it's subject to the same runoff that manure is. So this digester really doesn't solve the algae problem and probably makes it worse because now the P is more concentrated than the manure P.

Did the author actually think the P just disappears?

Shipping manure which is mostly water to the digester from farms, then shipping solids back to the farms is extremely expensive in terms of equipment, labor and energy. An interesting question for the author to have asked is what the net energy is from the process? And what government subsidies are involved?

Having the digesters on-farm perhaps makes more sense.

[NoVista]

Excellent observation, MacP

Usually, a total context is overlooked in problem solving. Which is why this mantra evolved: "Every problem has a solution -- and most solutions create problems."

An example of limited context was the old engineering 'fact' that the gasoline engine was 21% efficient, in thermodynamic terms -- compared to the 'inefficiency' of steam at only 11%. It wasn't bad press that killed the Stanley Steamer but seeing only some variables in a complex equation.

A current example of blinkered thinking is Planktos, Inc. Whoopie, we've got a theory and two limited tests: so let's dump 50 tons of iron oxide in the Pacific Ocean. It's a nutrient, you see, and plankon will thrive and absord that nasty CO2.

Yeah sure. Anyone who grew up in Florida in 1948 onward would shudder at the potential for creating a 'red tide' of mammoth proportions. All I can say about this misguided answer to ~climate change~ is: eat your shellfish and seafood now, it'll likely be reeking with neurotoxins Real Soon Now.