Microbe-powered ‘fart’ machine stores energy

clipped from www.msnbc.msn.com It sounds like a gag gift instead of serious science, but a new electrical farting machine could improve fuel cell technology by turning C02 in the atmosphere into methane. The technique won't combat global warming directly, since both CO2 and methane are potent greenhouse gases, but it could help store alternative energies such as wind and solar more efficiently. It works like this: giving small jolts of electricity to single-celled microorganisms known as archea prompts them to remove C02 from the air and turn it into methane, released as tiny "farts." The methane, in turn, can be used to power fuel cells or to store the electrical energy chemically until its needed. Archea are older, and more primitive, than bacteria, lacking a nucleus and other cellular machinery. methane-producing archea team up with termites to digest wood pulp. With other microorganisms, they help decompose organic matter.

A device that can both improve fuel cell technology and entertain 12-year-old boys. That's what I call the modern biathlon.

All in all a very ingenious and creative way to use micro organisms for our benefit.

Vaporizing Garbage into Gas

Every year so much garbage ends up in America’s landfills that we are becoming the Saudi Arabia of trash. These dumps emit more of the greenhouse gas methane than any other human-related source. The Atlanta-based company Geoplasma has created an innovative method of using plasma technology to turn rotting rubbish into usable power for up to 50,000 homes and at the same time reduce the amount of methane into the atmosphere.

Engineers have developed an efficient torch for blasting garbage with a stream of superheated gas, known as plasma. When trash is dropped into a chamber and heated to 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit, its organic components—food, fluids, paper—vaporize into a hot, pressurized gas, which turns a turbine to generate electricity. Steam, a by-product, can generate more. Inorganic refuse such as metals condense at the bottom and can be used in roadbeds and heavy construction.

Several small plasma plants exist around the world for industrial processes, but Geoplasma is constructing the first U.S. plasma refuse plant in St. Lucie County, Florida. The plant is scheduled to go online by 2011; it will process 1,500 tons of garbage a day, sending 60 megawatts of electricity to the power grid (after using some to power itself).

Emissions are far lower than in standard incineration, and the process reduces landfill volume and methane release. Power prices are projected to be on par with electricity from natural gas. The difference, says Ron Roberts, St. Lucie County’s assistant director of solid waste, is that “you’re getting rid of a problem and making it a positive.

Photo Credit: National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Garbage Powered Garbage Trucks

Why hasn’t this been thought of before? This is a great example of using a substance that we pay to haul away to pay for the equipment that hauls it away.

California is backing an initiative between the Linde Group and Waste Management to build a liquefied natural gas facility that will produce clean liquid fuel from landfill gas using municipal waste incinerators. The facility is expected to open in 2009 and will produce up to 13,000 gallons of fuel per day. The ground-breaking project will be the largest of its kind and will enable California to tap into a valuable renewable source of clean energy while greatly reducing our dependence on fossil fuels.

The collaboration between these two industries is the result of the U.S. EPA’s Landfill Methane Outreach Program which is designed to find a way to effectively use landfill gas as an energy source. Landfill gas (LFG) is created from the decomposition of organic materials in an anaerobic environment. A variety of gaseous products are created through this process, primarily carbon dioxide and methane. Carbon dioxide is likely to leach out of the landfill because it is soluble in water. Methane (a powerful greenhouse gas), on the other hand, which is less soluble in water and lighter than air, is likely to migrate out of the landfill. Landfill gas energy facilities capture the methane (the principal component of natural gas) and combust it for energy.

There are approximately 445 operational LFG energy projects in the United States. In addition, about 110 projects are currently under construction or are exploring development options and opportunities.

Perhaps the best way to show the effectiveness of capturing and using LFG can be best explained through numbers:

In the year 2007, all operational LFG energy projects in the United States prevented the release of more than 21 million metric tons of carbon equivalent.

* This reduction is the carbon equivalent of the annual greenhouse gas emissions from more than 14 million passenger vehicles or the carbon sequestered annually by nearly 18 million acres of pine or fir forests.

* This reduction also has the same environmental benefit as preventing the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the consumption of nearly 182 million barrels of oil or from the burning of more than 408,000 railcars’ worth of coal.

Burning methane releases only carbon dioxide and water. It is much cleaner than burning coal and oil which release a variety of potentially harmful air pollutants.

This may sound like a small step, and you might think it isn’t enough to make a difference, but I believe that this small step taken together will all of the other small steps that are being taken will go a long way towards combating global warming.

Source:

Landfill Methane Outreach Program