# Power from poop progresses



## begreen (Aug 25, 2012)

This is a pretty encouraging development.

_"A team of engineers from Oregon State University has developed a breakthrough microbial fuel cell that is capable of generating 10 to 50 times more electricity from waste than other MFCs."_

http://oregonstate.edu/ua/ncs/archives/2012/aug/major-advance-made-generating-electricity-wastewater


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## Frozen Canuck (Aug 25, 2012)

Thanks BG, that was a good read. Nice too see what those bright young minds that see problems differently are capable of. This could be a big one for countries that just cant afford to treat their waste, gives them a money making alternative albeit slowly to just dumping the stuff in the nearest waterway.


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## jharkin (Aug 26, 2012)

Wow, cool BG.

I wonder if i can i stick this thing in my septic tank and power my house?


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## BoilerMan (Aug 26, 2012)

haha, my thoughts exactly............

TS


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## Chain (Sep 10, 2012)

Tie this idea in with the Gates Foundation's quest to reinvent the toilet and you've made a bid step toward the goal of revolutionizing the way we approach human wastes on a global scale.....Very cool and thanks for sharing.


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## begreen (Sep 10, 2012)

I certainly hope so. It's about time we got our chit together. Literally!


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## BrotherBart (Sep 10, 2012)

They need to build the first one at a brewery. Those places produce tons of effluent rich with the stuff they need in it.

.


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## peakbagger (Sep 10, 2012)

Search for "cowpower" sometimes. One cow produces manure to run a 100 watt light bulb continuously.


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## Seasoned Oak (Sep 10, 2012)

peakbagger said:


> Search for "cowpower" sometimes. One cow produces manure to run a 100 watt light bulb continuously.


A 1 watt LED bulb is very bright, im sure you could light up the whole barn with 100 of them. So 1 cow could light up the whole barn.


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## begreen (Sep 10, 2012)

And what a proud cow that would be. She'd be beaming.


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## peakbagger (Sep 10, 2012)

When I discuss cowpower I usually warn the folks that they will probably never forget the triva that a cow puts out 100 watts on a continuous basis. I just tell them to remember the picture of a cow with a 100 watt bulb sticking out of its posterior. By the way I think a pig is a 40 watt light bulb. The nice part about cowpower and other energy methods is it grabs the methane out of the manure which is a big global warming issue.


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## begreen (Sep 10, 2012)

Actually a cow body generates a fair amount of heat also. Are the btus/hr being accounted for in the power equation?


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## Seasoned Oak (Sep 10, 2012)

peakbagger said:


> When I discuss cowpower I usually warn the folks that they will probably never forget the triva that a cow puts out 100 watts on a continuous basis. I just tell them to remember the picture of a cow with a 100 watt bulb sticking out of its posterior. By the way I think a pig is a 40 watt light bulb


So how many watts does a human produce? Guess it depends on the weight. Im sure a 500 Lb er produces more methane than a 100Lb er.


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## begreen (Sep 10, 2012)

Depends what they eat. My son doesn't weigh much, but given beer and nachos with beans he might match a pig for an hour or two.


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## Ehouse (Sep 10, 2012)

How many humans does it take to screw in a light bulb?


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## Scott2373 (Sep 15, 2012)

> How many humans does it take to screw in a light bulb?


2. But getting them in there is a b*tch!


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## begreen (Sep 15, 2012)

LOL Or a really big light bulb.


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## pdf27 (Sep 16, 2012)

Seasoned Oak said:


> So how many watts does a human produce? Guess it depends on the weight. Im sure a 500 Lb er produces more methane than a 100Lb er.


An average sitting/sleeping human produces about 100W of heat continuously.


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## begreen (Sep 17, 2012)

Wow, a cow must be up around 300W. Times 100 cows (30000 watts!)  and you have a lot of heat power in addition to the methane generation.  ooks like 102,364 BTUs!

More on cowpower: http://www.riverdeep.net/current/2002/03/032502t_cowpower.jhtml


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## begreen (Sep 17, 2012)

Looks like I was way off. A 1500 lb. strong milk producing cow can produce up to 11,137 watts per hour! Overheating in a crowded barn is a serious concern for farmers. Now not all of the cows are going to weigh as much or produce as much milk or heat. So let's say at 100,000 btus per day/cow a hundred cows would be produce a whopping 10,000,000 btus per day or 416, 667 btus/hr or 122,113 watts per hour in body heat alone 

http://www.farmanddairy.com/columns/heat-stress-your-best-cows-are-the-ones-at-risk/24896.html


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## pdf27 (Sep 17, 2012)

Interesting to note the effect of milk production there - the moving from 120lbs/day to 40 lbs/day reduces heat production from 6,300 BTU/hr to 3,300 BTU/hr. Hence, a resting cow not producing any milk will produce about 1,800 BTU/hr (530 Watts) for a 1,500 lb cow. Assuming a human is about 200 lbs, that scales to 70 Watts - although humans being smaller will lose heat faster in the same climate and hence need a slightly faster metabolism.

Oh, and begreen, you might want to check your maths - I make the given 6,300 BTU/hr for a high-producing cow to be ~1800W so I'm struggling to see how you got six times this.


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## begreen (Sep 17, 2012)

You're right! Watts up with that? I was way off. That should be 1846 watts/cow/hr or 184,600 watts/hr for the whole barn full if they were producing 120lb/day.


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## Seasoned Oak (Sep 17, 2012)

Who needs wood stoves just keep a few cows in the house for heat!


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## begreen (Sep 17, 2012)

We stayed in an old farmhouse in France where the lower floor was where the livestock used to be kept with the living space on the next floor. This is a common rural design around the world and still used in Tibet for example.


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