Not Just A Load Of Crap
by Karin Kloosterman, Jerusalem, Israel on 08. 3.07
When slapped with an order to clean up the poop of 12,000 dairy cows, the Hefer Valley Cooperative Society built a manure-driven power station to solve their problems. The first of its kind in Israel, the plant was inaugurated this week and is expected to process 600 tons of manure a day and generate 2-2.4 megawatts per hour (MW/h) within the year. At present the plant is operating at about half its capacity, and most of the energy is feeding back to the national grid.
The project is a joint effort between Tambour Hefer Ecology Ltd and Granite Hacarmel Investments Ltd. Granite Hacarmel CEO Amiaz Sagis said, "This is unquestionably an important milestone. This facility fits in with Granite Hacarmel's strategy to invest in infrastructures and ecology. The company is also investing resources to develop alternative energy, water treatment, and desalination.” While it wasn’t made cheap – the new plant located in Hadera cost about $10 million to build, which included a $2 million grant from Israel’s Ministry of Agriculture to help improve Israel’s much-polluting dairy industry. First the manure is sterilized, then the solid and liquid waste are processed to produce methane, which drives the generators. Related: Manure Power in the Spotlight and Everything Poops ::Globes via ::ISRAEL21c
generate 2-2.4 megawatts per hour (MW/h)
I think you mean Megawatt Hour (MWh). Also, you might want to add 'biogas' tag to this.
Yeah, I was about to say... megawatts per hour is a most unusual unit!
While it is good that some industrial farming operations are finally starting to think about the end-products of their production process (think fetid "manure lagoons" that just sit there while filtering into groundwater), it seems important to note that the problem only exists because of a continuing embrace of factory farm feedlots (CAFOs, or Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations). While turning the animal wastes into electricity does some good vis-a-vis greenhouse gas reduction, it doesn't address other pressing problems that CAFOs raise: 1) the constant illness of animals raised on corn, 2) the methane released from these corn-fed animals burping, 3) the overuse of antibiotics as prophylactics in such unsanitary conditions, 4) the potential of creating bacterial "superbugs" as a result of antibiotic overuse, 5) the breeding of a new deadly E. Coli strain in the altered pH of feedlot cattle stomachs, and 6) the tendency of feedlot beef to cause heart disease. I'm not saying that eco-engineers shouldn't help feedlots start cleaning up their act, but rather that the entire CAFO system in inherently more harmful than helpful. None of these problems, including the concentration of manure to clean up, would exist if meat and dairy cows stuck to a grass-fed diet on well-managed pasture.
Why do they need to sterilize the manure before, I assume, adding back bacteria to produce methane?
Writing about energy issues.. You should at least be sure of the units.
What's special or new here? The Danes have 100s of such facilites for over 20 years and the Germans built about 3000 in the past 10 years.
Reynier
Anyone that thinks you can feed 7 billion people by product from small farms and gardens (no factory large farms) is living in la-la land. I think thiis article shows an organization trying their best to make use of their animals waste product(s) and protect the environment, and they should be applauded