Techlines Today

How Cow Farts Can Solve Our Energy Problems

By Adam Myers ⋅ May 27, 2008 ⋅ Tags: biofuel, cows, hydrocarbons, renewable energy

The folks at Bell Plantations in Tifton, Georgia are developing a way to convert bacteria into hydrocarbons. By genetically manipulating the bacteria, they believe they can produce different

molecular chains to produce the basis for gasoline, diesel, propane and a variety of other hydrocarbon fuels.

In essence, they will be able to turn bacteria into oil – in a matter of months, rather than the millions of years it takes for fossils to degrade into usable fuels.

And proprietor J.C. Bell got the idea standing on a hill where cows were farting.

“I was standing downwind from one of our herds of cows,” Bell told me in a recent interview. “And it dawned on me that they can produce something quite well, and it all stinks. That stink is methane – natural gas. Methane is CH4. It’s a hydrocarbon. I started researching that and developing it in my little facility, and that led to the conclusion that we have the ability, if we can use bacterial action, to convert biomass into hydrocarbon.”

That’s what cows, termites and lots of other things do. They eat biomass and turn it into hydrocarbon. [...] Bell Plantations plans to clone the bacteria and genetically manipulate the biomass to produce hydrocarbon in the various forms needed to supply the market they anticipate. Present plans call for 500 nationwide production facilities within 18 months, which would give Bell Plantations the capacity to produce up to 500,000 barrels a day within two years – based on expected production capacity and a U.S. Department of Agriculture study showing that the U.S. produces 1.1 billion tons of recoverable biomass every year.

Who’s job title will be “Cow Fart Catcher”? Seriously though, it atleast sounds more economically viable and intelligent than biofuels, that is, until the midwest farmers receive a flatuance subsidy. For those pro-biofuel, realize that it not only reduces food production - duh - it also removes the organic nutrients from the fields which are necessary to prevent soil erosion and reduced water retention. How mad max of this guy!

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