The Smelliest Way To Cut Your Carbon Footprint
June 13, 2008
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A new study released yesterday goes into detail on using pig manure for biofuel. The study, published in the journal Fuel, said the pig-manure based biofuel is not yet ready for use, but it is getting very close. A strange, but potentially helpful, way to reduce your carbon footprint.
By boosting the ratio of biofuel generated from the manure by 70%, the researchers estimated they could create 21 gallons of fuel per production-cycle, translating into a profit of $10 per pig.
Twenty-one gallons? Ten dollars? Both pretty small numbers. But multiplied by the 100 million pigs slaughtered in the country each year and the idea becomes much more plausible, and with the added benefit of doing something useful to reduce our carbon footprint with the manure, which usually ends up thrown away in rivers and streams.
But there remains some significant hurdles. The ‘pig crude’, remains dirtier than regular fuel as it still contains sulfur, heavy metals, and other nutrients. The researchers remain confident, however, that this could be overcome. One of the researchers said that it is currently “less ‘clean’ than petroleum-derived crude. Of course that will change as the process is tweaked.”
While it is just an idea for now, we could soon be filling up our cars with animal waste as a way to cut our carbon footprint!
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