Research: Pig Manure Can Become Crude Oil

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040413/ap_on_bi_ge/farm_scene_3

Research: Pig Manure Can Become Crude Oil

Tue Apr 13, 2:17 AM ET Add Business - AP to My Yahoo!

By JIM PAUL, Associated Press Writer

URBANA, Ill. - A University of Illinois research team is working on turning pig manure into a form of crude oil that could be refined to heat homes or generate electricity.

Years of research and fine-tuning are ahead before the idea could be commercially viable, but results so far indicate there might be big benefits for farmers and consumers, lead researcher Yanhui Zhang said.

"This is making more sense in terms of alternative energy or renewable energy and strategically for reducing our dependency on foreign oil," said Zhang, an associate professor of agricultural and biological engineering. "Definitely, there is potential in the long term."

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Zhang predicted that one day a reactor the size of a home furnace could process the manure generated by 2,000 hogs at a cost of about $10 per barrel.

Big oil refineries are unlikely to purchase crude oil made from converted manure, Zhang said, because they aren't set up to refine it. But the oil could be used to fuel smaller electric or heating plants, or to make plastics, ink or asphalt, he said.

"Crude oil is our first raw material," he said. "If we can make it value-added, suddenly the whole economic picture becomes brighter."

looks promising but apparently the bfee has it's tentacles into the technology (thereby limiting the enthusiasm for this promising source of energy).

anyhow, for more information, do a search on "anything into oil"

http://www.spiritofmaat.com/announce/newoil.htm

not sure about the oil part.

they gonna hook a hose up to the back end of rush limbaugh and power half of NYC?

:D

Auntie Entity: "No, pigshit. Bartertown runs on pigshit"

they are already doing seomthing like this in China. Some green charity (I think its the Nature Conservancy) bought efficient methane-burning furnaces and gave it to rural chinese farmers. The idea is that they use it to burn the waste from pig crap which is LOADED with methane. One or two large pigs can keep a family of four heated and fed for pennies. This stops deforestation cause the Chinese dont need to cut down forests for heating/cooking fuel. ITs a pretty good idea IMO and has been pretty successful so far in preventing deforestation, a HUGE problem in CHina these days.

be trucked to a cooperative Methane production center, the residual solids are high grade fertillizer that can be sold for profit share and the methane shared by the coperatives to reduce the cost of heating/cooling expences and will run machinery and vehicles with simple propane injection to regulate the octane level.

that would meke the product cheaper... maybe..

but they will never do it.. it is to simple.. smacks of tree hugging. they might be called pig huggers..

all the manure being strewn from the WH into usable energy.

and diesel and is an almost totally clean fuel.. but the paper manufactures, Cotton industry and petroleum industry will keep it in the same danger level as Heroin. dangerous to their profits..it would save our family farmers...

Maybe this is why dumbass bought this "ranch" in the first place?

energy. It used to be the federal govt that covered this le. manhattan project, but since the rise of coservativism that won't happen again.

If we can make it value-added, suddenly the whole economic picture becomes brighter."

now gonna turn into the largest oil producer?


Heh, well, beats screwing over Alaska, and Iraq, and....

The idea of turning pig manure to something like crude oil is a very good idea. I can think of other reasons besides costs to do it. Imagine a process that could turn a pollutant like pig or cow manure from a water and soil contaminant to a fuel source. Pollution would decrease, Waste treatment plants might be able to balance their books. Less petroleum would be needed.

Now imagine a similar process being developed to deal with human excrement...

http://www.transparencynow.com/max1.htm

Underneath Bartertown is Underworld, an underground pig sty and energy plant, wallowing in the pig manure that is used to produce the methane gas that supplies Bartertown with its electricity and fuel. It is a place teeming with pigs and slaves, in which pig feed and manure are constantly being shoveled or conveyed from place to place. It is governed, not by Aunty Entity, but by Master a dwarf who is the brains of the pig sty operation, and by Blaster, a giant and the brawn of the pair. Master perches on Blaster's upper back and, together, they make up the two-person unit -- Master-Blaster -- that controls Underworld. To assert his control over the rest of Bartertown, Master keeps imposing an "embargo", cutting off the methane supply to the city, until Aunty Entity publicly acknowledges that he is the one who is really in charge, upon which he restores the city's electricity.