Manure Studied as a Plentiful Fuel Source - Houston Chronicle 08/

[Guest guest]

When my son Asto was in Africa last year, doing an economic development

field study for college, he visited a friend of the Kampala devotees who

was operating a biomass digester. He was pretty impressed with it. I

think he said that the man had imported it from India.

 

But also biogas is much more widely used in Africa, and I think also in

India (Hrimati and Labangalatika prabhus could let us know more about

that). I don't think one needs to be used at the exclusion of the

other. One good thing about biogas is that you get both gas for

cooking/lighting *and* sludge which is safe to use for fertilizer.

 

An engineer in Rwanda just won some type of environmental award for a

large biogas project which produces cooking gas and fertilizer for a

Rwanda prison establishment. Asto's friend knows some of the Congolese

professors that worked with that engineer.

 

It seems to me one of the tricky points about using a biogas digester is

how to balance the need to collect manure from both humans and animals,

with the need to insure that cows spend a sufficient amount of time on

pasture -- where their manure is not easy to gather for such purposes.

The ideal thing for a biogas digester would be to have the animals tied

up all the time. That way it's easy to gather all the manure. But that

is the opposite of what is needed for the animals' health. And it also

can attract flies and bugs that bother the cows. So somehow a balance

has to be figured out.

 

************

 

You're right about your objection that in an intensive dairy or beef

operation that manure is just one more form of converted petroleum (in

addition to the milk and meat that is produced). Most of this stuff is

against our philosophy one way or another.

 

On the other hand, I think there is a lot which could be done with

biogas and ox power on a much smaller scale. Biogas is a good

alternative to chopping down more trees. Asto described that in

Karamoja, practically all the trees are chopped down -- both for

firewood, and to make charcoal to sell. Very harmful for the environment.

 

your servant,

 

Hare Krsna dasi

 

Mark Middle Mountain wrote:

 

>This is sort of bogus. The reason the mountains of manure are a disposal

>problem is because of centralized feeding of cattle. The feed from the

>cattle is produced using fossil fuel based fertilizers to replace the manure

>that isn't put back into the fields. So the manure is to some extent a

>surrogate form of petroleum.

>

>If someone were to visit NV, I could show them hybrid poplars I planted

>about 20 years ago. They can be grown on marginal lands, and the biomass

>produced, without fossil fuels, in the leaves and twigs, are an efficient

>feedstock for alcohol production. Alcohol is a fuel. The alcohol produced

>by hybrid poplars (or other feedstocks such as house hold garbage) is a much

>better alternative than burning manure on an industrial scale. IMHO.

>

>

>-----------------------

>To from this mailing list, send an email to:

>Cow-Owner (AT) pamho (DOT) net

>

>

[Guest guest]

When I first got our cow from the goshala, our Vet, who is also the Local

Government Vet, told me that the Government has a scheme, that they will

come and build me a small bio gas tank. If I pay 1000 Rupees, they will pay

the rest. The tank will be big enough to manage the manure for 5 cows.

 

At the time I had neither the money nor the space to have such a tank,

however, I am considering now to have this tank build, if they still

offering to do it.

Dr.Nanda Krishna said that they stopped the scheme. There was either some

fault in the design or not enough people want the thing. I don't know.

 

In India cows are most of the time tied up, because of lack of grazing

Land.

People have, from time in memorial, used dried cow dung for fuel. I use the

cow patties to burn at night to control the mosquitoes, who bother my ox

Balaram.

We tried to put a net on him, however, he tor it apart with his big horns.

I use a big mosquitoes net for the female cows.

 

there is a lot of info on Love4cow.com

 

http://www.love4cow.com/bio-eneryandruraldevelopment.htm

 

http://www.love4cow.com/documents.htm

 

y.s.

Hrimati dasi

[Guest guest]

This is pretty impressive. India is far ahead of the West in the matter

of biogas. I think there will be much more interest in India's biogas

programs in the coming decade. I'm sure we'll be watching TV special

documentaries on it.

 

Thanks for sharing this information with us.

 

ys

 

hkdd

 

Hrimati (dd) ACBSP (Mayapur - IN) wrote:

 

>When I first got our cow from the goshala, our Vet, who is also the Local

>Government Vet, told me that the Government has a scheme, that they will

>come and build me a small bio gas tank. If I pay 1000 Rupees, they will pay

>the rest. The tank will be big enough to manage the manure for 5 cows.

>

>At the time I had neither the money nor the space to have such a tank,

>however, I am considering now to have this tank build, if they still

>offering to do it.

>Dr.Nanda Krishna said that they stopped the scheme. There was either some

>fault in the design or not enough people want the thing. I don't know.

>

>In India cows are most of the time tied up, because of lack of grazing

>Land.

>People have, from time in memorial, used dried cow dung for fuel. I use the

>cow patties to burn at night to control the mosquitoes, who bother my ox

>Balaram.

>We tried to put a net on him, however, he tor it apart with his big horns.

>I use a big mosquitoes net for the female cows.

>

> there is a lot of info on Love4cow.com

>

>http://www.love4cow.com/bio-eneryandruraldevelopment.htm

>

>http://www.love4cow.com/documents.htm

>

>y.s.

>Hrimati dasi

>

>-----------------------

>To from this mailing list, send an email to:

>Cow-Owner (AT) pamho (DOT) net

>

>

[Guest guest]

I set up a bio-gas plant in the Mayapur gurukul back in 1984 with assistance

from the West Bengal government. I think we paid about 25% and the

government paid the rest. The design was Chinese and worked very well,

producing enough gas to fire a large burner for cooking lunch, and there was

enough left over for a gas lamp in the evenings and for heating up the milk.

It took one man about two hours a day to collect and mix the gobber from the

Goshalla. After the gobber had produced gas, it came out from the plant bug

free and somehow more suitable as a fertilizer, the agricultural department

loved it. I'm afraid I don't know the technical details as my interest was

economical. It was very simple and worked, though I don't think it is used

anymore, actually I don't think the kitchen is used any more, but I haven't

been that side for more than 15 years so I can't really say.

 

Y.S.

Murari gupta das.

[Guest guest]

>...... but I haven't

>been that side for more than 15 years so I can't really say.

 

According to my son Abhay, they are still using it.

Also the goshala has a new big tank.