It has already proven its worth as a fertilizer and building material, and even as a secret ingredient in Ancient Egyptian ceramics. As it turns out, cow dung might also have a bright future as a plentiful source of clean electricity.
It has already proven its worth as a fertilizer and building material, and even as ain Ancient Egyptian ceramics. As it turns out, cow dung might also have a bright future as a plentiful source of clean electricity, thanks to the planet-warming methane it produces.
The technology isn’t all that hard to grasp. Manure and waste water from the farm’s nearly 7,000 cows are transported and sifted into a 25-million-gallon rectangular pit in the ground called a digester. The liquid sits for about 30 days while methane gas rises to the top of the closed digester. The gas then gets piped into a skid shifter, which separates the methane from hydrogen sulfide and other impurities.
This is where fuel cells lend a helping hand, since they don’t spew out carbon dioxide as a byproduct when running the methane-to-electricity reactions. Bar 20 Dairy uses solid oxide fuel cells made by San Jose-based company. They consist of an anode, a cathode, and an electrolyte that’s sandwiched between two interconnected plates.
Sheheady, whose grandfather started Bar 20 Dairy, told The Daily Beast the farm’s microgrid is running better than expected. The fuel-cell system, which started operating in October, is expected to produce about 8.5 million kilowatt-hours of power per year, which is equivalent to powering over 750 homes, according to Bloom. Right now, the farm is basically making more power than it’s able to use.
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