Energy: Manure Fuel?

Pilot project for cattle waste

Natural gas is a critically scarce fuel in the U.S.—but there is no detectable shortage of cow manure. A howling non sequitur? Not to the U.S. Department of Energy. It has granted $938,000 for a pilot project to turn cattle waste into methane, a form of natural gas.

The site is a giant feed lot in central Florida where 20,000 cattle at a time are fattened. Their droppings will be placed into fermenter tanks filled with thermophilic (heat-loving) bacteria. As the bacteria ingest the manure at a temperature of 120°, they give off a gas that is 65% methane. Donald D. Kaplan, owner of the feed lot, says that the project is expected to provide enough fuel for all his own operations, which include a feed mill, packing house and rendering plant —with "enough left over to supply a good part of the city of Bartow [pop. 12,000] with all the natural gas it needs." The commercial possibilities appear to intrigue United Technologies Corp. (annual sales: $5.2 billion). Its Hamilton-Standard division formed a joint venture with Kaplan to research the process and win the Washington grant.