USA, San Francisco
Dairy producers, energy and environmental groups in California have
released a study which could see them becoming energy producers,
harnessing methane from cow manure for transport use. "There are 8.5
million cows in the United States, each producing enough manure to
potentially generate about 30 cubic feet of biomethane per day, which
could replace significant amounts of natural gas at today’s prices",
said Allen Dusault, Biofuels Project Manager for Sustainable
Conservation. "If used as vehicle fuel, biomethane could power a
million cars."
"The new study, Biomethane from Dairy Waste: A Sourcebook for the
Production and Use of Renewable Natural Gas in California offers effective and economical technologies for producing biomethane, as
well as specific applications and markets for the gas.”
"The technologies for converting dairy manure to biomethane are already
used at several landfills around the United States. Sweden has 20
plants producing biomethane and runs 2,300 buses on it. As natural gas
prices continue to rise, biomethane fuel is becoming cost-competitive
with natural gas and diesel, and is much cheaper than hydrogen.
Switching to biomethane improves air quality, reduces greenhouse gas
emissions, improves water quality and strengthens rural economies."
"It is not actually the manure we’ll put in the tank," said Paul
Martin, Environmental Services Director of Western United Dairymen.
"We’ll use the gas that forms when manure is processed in a methane
digester and then upgraded to vehicle fuel quality. More than a dozen
methane digesters are operating or under construction on dairy farms in
California. Dairy farmers in New York, Wisconsin and other states are
also discovering the economic, environmental and community benefits of
locally produced energy."
California has particularly good reasons for using biomethane. The
state is home to more than 1.7 million dairy cows, with a technically
feasible potential for producing about 18 billion cubic feet of methane
a year, equivalent to over 150 million gallons of gasoline. The San
Joaquin Valley, where most of the cows reside, has some of the nation’s
most polluted air. A dairy biomethane industry along Highway 99 could
serve as the start for a renewable fuel highway, possibly evolving in
the future into a ‘renewable hydrogen highway,’ should it prove
advantageous to convert biomethane to hydrogen.
"Unlike ethanol and biodiesel, biomethane receives no direct
government funding or incentives. To quickly achieve the full potential
of biomethane, the federal and state governments must support
development of the technology, markets, programmatic infrastructure and
regulatory environment that will allow rapid use of this practical,
domestic energy resource," said Michael Marsh, CEO, Western United
Dairymen.
Biomethane from Dairy Waste: A Sourcebook for the Production
and Use of Renewable Natural Gas in California represents a
collaboration among experts from a wide range of specialties, including
advanced transportation technologies, alternative fuels, dairy
operations and environmental impacts. The study was funded by a grant
from U.S. Department of Agriculture – Rural Development. Project
partners include Sustainable Conservation, Western United Dairymen,
Institute for Environmental Management, Great Valley Center, CalStart
and RCM Digesters.
The study is available here.
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