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Robert D asked in Environment · 1 decade ago

Should we capture methane from cows?

I recently read where cows pollute more than suv's. The methane gas is the problem, why not figure out how to capture this gas, we capture all the solids and liquids from cows, why not gas, I know it is burnable as fuel. We could capture it and burn it in suv's. This could create a new cottage industry. "Got Gas"

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  • 1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    There are hundreds, probably thousands, of on-farm methane digesters around the world collecting methane from the manure of cows and pigs and burning it to generate electricity, some are also using it for tractors and other vehicles. The problem is that because of efficiencies of scale and relatively low prices for electricity most small farms can't afford to buy the equipment needed to do this.

    Source(s): Seen them, researched them, would like to build one but I'd have to double the size of our farm to be able to make it pay.
  • Spud55
    Lv 5
    1 decade ago

    Okay now, mentally picture the research project that came up with the cow gas hypothesis...Picture a bunch of vegan, tree hugging pseudo-scientists in white coats shoving hoses up the rears of a cow herd. Imagine the data collected...Herefords produce 10ppm more methane than Guernseys and Holsteins produce 20ppm more than Herefords. There are twice as many Charolais than Angus' and three times as many Angus as Jerseys so the world's cows collectively fart enough to blast the Earth clear to the Milky Way and back again. Yes, we probably should collect it and shoot Al Gore into another solar system.

  • 1 decade ago

    Whoever told you that cows pollute more than suv's filled you full of cow farts. Think about it...cows have been around much longer than suv's. We have done fine for the last, oh, 400 million years or so that cows have been around, so why are we worried now?

  • 1 decade ago

    ok, so now cows are supposed to go around with bags sticking out of their butts? How could you possibly collect methane gas from cows?

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  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    I believe that ozone reacts with methane in the upper atmosphere, how i am not sure. If it or something else did not clear it (degrade to CO2 and H2O) we would all have been suffocated or blown up by now by that build up. If lightning creates ozone......

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    Not feasible. However, methane from garbage dumps is now being collected.

    It is feasible to build sewage digesters, and make natural gas from our sewage, reducing the load on non-renewable sources, such as oil.

    This will not happen as long as the oil cartell (us, not Arabs) are allowed to stop all who try it.

  • Nick C
    Lv 4
    1 decade ago

    why not collect it from humans too?

    there's more economically feasable ways to create methane. we capture the solids because all it takes is one bloke with a shovel to collect fertilizer. with gasses, this is a bit more tricky.

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    sure you can be the one to go around sticking the methane collectors up cows butts

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