Recently in the Netherlands, the worlds largest biomass power plant has opened. It’s capable to producing 270 million kWh of electricity a year, which has enough power to deliver electricity to 80,000 homes.
Whats great about using chicken manure is that there is no release of methane gas which means this biomass powerplant is “carbon natural.”
This new power plant will contain 440,000 tons of chicken manure a year, which is about a third of whats of what’s produced in the Netherlands. This way chicken manure can go to a good cause instead of polluting the Netherlands and the surrounding countries.
via [metaefficient]
September 7th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
This isn’t very surprising. Most waste can be used for some form of energy.
September 8th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
I need this at my house!
September 8th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
OK nice to use waste, but you have to wonder what kind of chicken farms this comes from
September 8th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
Because it doesn’t produce methane doesn’t mean it’s carbon neutral. Burning of anything organic produces some form of Carbon.
September 9th, 2008 at 1:11 am
Yes, burning it will produce carbon, but it is still carbon neutral. This is because the carbon contained in the manure comes from the carbon in their plant-based feed, and the plants got their carbon from the atmosphere in the first place. Burning wood is also carbon neutral, since the wood got it’s carbon from the atmosphere as well. Burning coal and petroleum is not carbon neutral, because their carbon comes from subterranean stores.
September 9th, 2008 at 6:54 am
@ pier
it is carbon neutral because it is releasing carbon that was just absorbed from the atmosphere instead of millions of years later.
@rumplestiltskin
a chicken farm is a chicken farm as chicken s*** is chicken s***.
September 9th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
Any clue what is done with the waste? A methane digester leaves solid mass which would still have considerable agricultural value.
September 10th, 2008 at 2:20 am
This is great!It’s about time we used more waste as energy sources. I do like the idea for the agricultural use for the leftover solid mass! It would also be great if they could come up with a way to use BS as a power source. My husband could power a whole country!
September 10th, 2008 at 9:52 am
@corrections
Burning coal is not carbon neutral because fossil fuels are no longer part of carbon cycle. In other words burning renevable fuels does not increase the amount of carbondiokside in the atmosphere in the long run, but burning fossil fuels does.
September 10th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
ok 2 questions.
1) y is methane a waste produce? why don’t u burn the methane to produce more energy
2) a power plant this large means you need to hull in a lot of manure. This requires trucks which use fuel and produce carbon.
3) to generate power from manure, don’t u burn it or burn off the by produce. And doesn’t that burning produce carbon dioxide
September 11th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Looks like that was 3 questions greg? hmmm
September 11th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
haha
September 11th, 2008 at 6:50 pm
This seems to be the way of the future. Although I have to agree with a previous post that the trucking in of manure might reduce the benefit. It seems like we need large farms with power plants at the site to fully take advantage.
September 12th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
As far as carbon neautral goes, I believe the author said “carbon natural” (Unless it was changed later). That implies what everyone has been saying their corrections: The carbon is “recent” carbon in the context of our environment (i.e. carbon that was already there).
Regarding using trucks to haul the manure: I still this project as an improvement over a coal power plant, because a coal plant also uses trucks/trains/ships to get the coal to the plant (Not to mention producing it).
September 12th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
The methane from the BS in Washington DC could heat the Eastern Seaboard at least, but getting plans through Congress would require huge amounts of very expensive Castor oil and specially fit grease guns for the application. We should call in NASA, this could be harder than hitting the moon!
September 15th, 2008 at 6:23 am
270000000 Kilowatt-Hour into Electron Volt
Result: 6.0667453449168E+33
conversion rate 1 : 2.2469427203396E+25
note: 6.0667453449168E+33 means 6.0667453449168 x 10^+33
That article isn’t accurate and the facts prove it! I expand..
Typical house in US has a conductance Khouse = 20,000 Btu/DD
270000000 Kilowatt-Hour into British Thermal Units
Result: 921278417097.22
conversion rate 1 : 3412.1422855453
So deriving the result of 270Mil KWh into BTU and dividing the result by 80,000 (as stated in the article) supposes that 11515980.21 BTU’s is the average household.
You forgot to take into account the initial mass, mi is larger than the final mass, mf, then E released = (mi - mf)c2.
In America the state of Nevada is resisting becoming the repository for the entire country’s high level waist. Why not just start powering up from waste dumped in Nevada and avoid the chicken? The question then would be, did Nevada or the chicken come first…
September 15th, 2008 at 6:38 am
Production Nevada Share of U.S.
56 trillion Btu 2005 0.1%
Your going to need a lot more chickens
September 15th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
@Glen
Let me guess… umm, your an American, therefore the center of the world right?
Last time I checked (about a year ago) the average US household consumed about 11 times the energy of the average European household… the average household in the Netherlands uses much less energy then your average American household… no where in the article does it refer to America, why do you assume it’s talking about 80,000 American homes? Oh sorry, center of the world and all… silly me, sheesh.
http://tinyurl.com/5w353y
September 16th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
Just burn the damn chicken.
September 16th, 2008 at 5:11 pm
Americans aren’t the center of the world, we just live in the best part!
September 17th, 2008 at 1:31 am
Now that’s really good sh*t!
September 17th, 2008 at 5:36 am
face palm.
September 17th, 2008 at 8:21 am
I’ll see KFC in a whole new (chicken powered) light.
September 21st, 2008 at 1:32 am
Well I’m impressed. And I am nobody. Just a simple Canadian. As far as I’m concerned any new way to produce energy is a good one. Why not explore? See whats out there…..see what can be used? Because we all know the resources we abuse are coming to an end. As for you ingnorant Americans….please stop talking….until you know what the (simple) word “Hydro” means. Or is that just “Your” Southern States ignorance…you know…One bad apple…can spoil a bunch…so on..Educate your own Country before you try to educate others!
September 30th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
Getting rid of poo and getting electricity. Great idea.
October 23rd, 2008 at 11:25 pm
I find this very interesting. People from other countries are stating how Americans haven’t a grip on how to conserve. Do these comments come from the same people that use the technology that America created? Hmmm. Yep. Tell you what, since you want to poo poo Americans so much, why don’t you just give up everything that came from us. That would be like, computers, radios, oil (yeah, we pioneered that), nuclear power, velcro, phones… Oh, and the internet. Sure, we have things that we are not proud of, so do all your countries. but don’t be that near sighted. It just shows that you haven’t thought, just put down the “emotions of the minute”.
And, by the way, Rome is still the center of the world. Look at a map.
November 9th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
My buddy linked me this… this really is something great! Get eggs AND power… what more can you ask for from a chicken?
November 10th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
With the winter months setting in thick and fast I have noticed the difference in my energy bills compared to last years, I have been with Scottish Power ever since I moved into my house 4 years ago and am scared to change as I have heard all the horror stories.
January 1st, 2009 at 5:43 pm
Another great way to reuse something into an energy source. There was a tv show that talked about using grease from restaurants as an energy source as well. Hopefully more of these types of sources will continue to pop up and eliminate our need for dirty sources of energy.