Pile-it program: Pig manure turned into oil
Yanhui Zhang of the University of Illinois, father of pig manure-to-oil technology. (Tom Roberts/AP)
he legendary streets of El Dorado were said to be paved with gold. Now we learn that the roads in Missouri one day may be paved with pig manure.
Well, at least with the help of pig manure. National Hog Farmer, one of our favorite magazines, reported last month that at Rick Rehmeier’s hog farm near Augusta in St. Charles County’s [s]wine country, a prototype reactor using a process called thermo-chemical conversion “uses intense heat and pressure to break down the molecular structure of manure to a raw, basic form of petroleum that resembles tar pitch, commonly used in roofing and road repair.”
Potential benefits to hog producers are obvious: Instead of paying millions to control waste (and listen to complaints about odors), they can turn it into revenue. Benefits to the rest of us are just as obvious.
The process — essentially a sped-up version of natural processes that turned organic matter like dinosaurs into oil — was developed at the University of Illinois. Grants from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Missouri Pork Producers Association and the Missouri Department of Agriculture are funding the experiment.
Think of it as a “pile-it” program: Pile it here, pile it there, turn it into oil.
–So can we say then that is one program that is literally, a load of crap?
So after millenia of using “night soil” and dung for fertilizer and fuel, the next big advancement is to use it for road repair and paving.
Just one problem I foresee here — will such paving material be kosher?
Man who produces his own biodiesel fuel. He can only produce it in limited quantities and not for resale. Said that biodiesel producers in this state have a difficult time obtaining a stamp to allow them to produce. The government is actively seeking to squelch fuel production of anything other than petroleum based products.