Bio-Mass Energy

[Bentiron1946]

My wife, bless her heart, wants me to do something with all of the dog poo besides put it in the trash. So I started looking for what and how to use it and came across Bio-Mass energy. I also found some books from these folks: KP They have a lot of interesting titles for sure.:cool: I still think I'll put it in the trash.

Edited November 3, 2009 by Bentiron1946

[pkrankow]

I'm going to recommend composting under 4 inches of rich earth to keep the smell down. There is a thread about horse dung as forge fuel, no results yet.
http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/f85/horse-manure-fuel-14802/

[Bentiron1946]

Oh, I compost stuff all of the time, I just don't like to compost dog poo. She wants something other than compost, she wants energy from the stuff, methane in particular. One of the gals she works with is talking it up as a renewable energy source. I'm sort of decrepit so I not much interested, but putting forth a little effort to check it out. I found the books interesting.

Edited November 3, 2009 by Bentiron1946

[Glenn]

Burned dog dung (incinerated in the wood stove) leaves the solids (minerals etc) in the same general shape as before being burned, but has little heat value. It does however add a very distinct aroma to the smoke coming from the chimney of the wood stove. (grin)

We raise and show Cockers and have tried many different dog foods in order to find the best food for the dog. Different dog foods produce vastly different waste consistency, some being very solid, well formed and compact, while other foods produce waste that is of much greater volume (2x to 3x) and semi-soft to almost loose. This is Cocker Spaniel dog dung, so your mileage may vary.

[Glenn]

----- Frosty, where are you when we need you? This is the kind of thread you stay up late at night waiting for. Hurry up and get well. -----


IF you do not build a box to begin with, then you do not have to think outside the box. (I read that somewhere)

Maybe the best solution is to package the dog dung up and send it to the gal your wife works with that is talking it up as a renewable energy source. You found a home for the dog dung, the gal at work gets additional renewable energy, and the wife is happy as she is saving the environment and creating renewable energy with each bucket of poo she carries to work. Problem solved. (BIG GRIN)

[David Einhorn]

From what I have read biomass is likely to come from rapid-growing grasses which grow quickly and have a high energy output. The article I read on the subject described converting the grass to pellets that can be used in a pellet stove or other mass to energy conversion process. If memory serves me correctly, about an acre of grass when harvested and pellitized was described as being able to heat a modest sized house for a winter.
Unfortunately, dog poo has very little energy value. But if your friend is eager to try, our mastiffs put out a *lot* of poo. :D

[ThomasPowers]

"Free in tropical areas" Take a look at the pretty much complete deforestation of Haiti! In many tropical places biomass harvesting is destroying the environment. Rainforest soils are generally extremely poor soils as the nutrients are quickly washed away leaving only the current composting components to provide for new growth.

While biomass can be managed as a renewable resource it generally *isn't*.

Ob smithing: "The Mastery and Uses of Fire in Antiquity" Rehder deals with biomass fueled furnaces used in ancient times for a number of purposes. (book includes plans for a "foolproof" bloomery in the appendix too.)

[pkrankow]

Tropical areas have it easier time about it because of sugarcane. It is the ideal plant to make ethanol from. Old gasoline engines only need a carburetor rebuild to run on ethanol, and they still can run on gasoline afterwords. Here in the US and much of the rest of the world we are using food crops that do not produce large amounts of ethanol per acre, and drive up food prices.

Other than fast-growing sources biomass is not replaced and that is problematic.

Phil

[Bentiron1946]

My wife has read of a stockyard some where in the Midwest that use cow dung to generate methane to run their generator thereby not needing to purchase electricity from the grid.
Kudzu is all one of those ideal biomass plans according an article I came across while reading articles on biomass and produces more ethanol than corn.
She don't want to directly burn the dog poo only use it to generate methane fuel. I think she's out there a bit on that though.

[pkrankow]

You know I read about a chicken farm doing that here in Ohio somewhere. I wish I could find the article. They were expecting to generate more power than they use.

Phil

[Bentiron1946]

Lot of poop going to landfill here. Last time I drove a load of brush to dump there was a short wheel base dump truck full of it. First we grow the alfalfa, ship to Phoenix area, feed it to the blessed little horses, then haul it to the dump. If that isn't a waste of energy I don't know what is. There ought to be a central collection site for organic material composting.