Methane gas. And I didn’t have it – the cow manure did. Today I ventured out of my cubicle (along with my boss Al and a co-worker, Jim) to tour a couple cutting edge enviro-projects. The first one was at a big beef farm. It’s a big operation – over 1,000 head. That’s a lot of poop!
They scoop the barn out and put the fuel (translate poopy material) into a truck and haul it down the hill to the staging area. Then they slowly feed it into a pit with dirty water and two sticks of margarine. Okay, I’m just joshing about the margarine, but they do add in some special stuff that is sugary that will help the good bugs begin the process.
Big pumps push the resulting sludge into the methane production area – which is about the size of an Olympic sized swimming pool. The lagoon “cooks” and emits methane gas. The gas is pumped into giant engines that produce heat and power. Some of the power is used on-site and the rest is sold to the local power cooperative. The watery bi-product of the gas runs through a press, where the liquid is separated from any solids. The liquid contains lots of nutrients and can be used as fertilizer on area fields. The solids look much like compost and are used for bedding. It’s a pretty cool system!
When we left the facility, we all had the feeling we reeked of cow poo. Plus I got my new shoes muddy. Damn! Oh well, we had a nice lunch at the Red Frog in the Czech Village in Cedar Rapids. Then it was on to the next adventure.
Cedar Rapids is this site of a Plasma Arc pilot project for dealing with flood debris. The pilot unit is mounted on a semi trailer, and can gasify 1 ton of trash per day. It sounds like a cool thing – magically vaporizing garbage. It is done at temps over 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. That first blast of heat melts out all metal and turns inorganic materials into glass. The organic stuff becomes vapor – some of which turns into a type of fuel. The estimated price tag for a facility that can burn 250 tons per day? $50 –$80 million.
On the way back I talked Al into letting me stop briefly at the Vanity Fair outlet to buy underpants. Now that I’m a traveling working woman, I needed new ones. I had to choose quickly so I hope I chose wisely. (not butt cutters, as my dad would call the ones that creep up your ass) When we got back to the Big City I learned how to gas (E85 not methane) up the state car at the state pump. Exciting!
Now you know a little bit more about my world. I dig learning about stuff like that. And scored some undies!
They scoop the barn out and put the fuel (translate poopy material) into a truck and haul it down the hill to the staging area. Then they slowly feed it into a pit with dirty water and two sticks of margarine. Okay, I’m just joshing about the margarine, but they do add in some special stuff that is sugary that will help the good bugs begin the process.
Big pumps push the resulting sludge into the methane production area – which is about the size of an Olympic sized swimming pool. The lagoon “cooks” and emits methane gas. The gas is pumped into giant engines that produce heat and power. Some of the power is used on-site and the rest is sold to the local power cooperative. The watery bi-product of the gas runs through a press, where the liquid is separated from any solids. The liquid contains lots of nutrients and can be used as fertilizer on area fields. The solids look much like compost and are used for bedding. It’s a pretty cool system!
When we left the facility, we all had the feeling we reeked of cow poo. Plus I got my new shoes muddy. Damn! Oh well, we had a nice lunch at the Red Frog in the Czech Village in Cedar Rapids. Then it was on to the next adventure.
Cedar Rapids is this site of a Plasma Arc pilot project for dealing with flood debris. The pilot unit is mounted on a semi trailer, and can gasify 1 ton of trash per day. It sounds like a cool thing – magically vaporizing garbage. It is done at temps over 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. That first blast of heat melts out all metal and turns inorganic materials into glass. The organic stuff becomes vapor – some of which turns into a type of fuel. The estimated price tag for a facility that can burn 250 tons per day? $50 –$80 million.
On the way back I talked Al into letting me stop briefly at the Vanity Fair outlet to buy underpants. Now that I’m a traveling working woman, I needed new ones. I had to choose quickly so I hope I chose wisely. (not butt cutters, as my dad would call the ones that creep up your ass) When we got back to the Big City I learned how to gas (E85 not methane) up the state car at the state pump. Exciting!
Now you know a little bit more about my world. I dig learning about stuff like that. And scored some undies!
1 comment:
way to blog about cow manure and granny panties!
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