Photo: kenny_lex (flickr) Here’s a surprising fuel source: dog
doo. Many European farms have been turning animal waste into
biofuel for 20 years now. The city of San Franciscans is
launching a program to recycle the waste from its 120,000 plus
pooches and other pets. It’s estimated that about 3.8% of their
residential garbage collected is composed of pet litter. They
want to reduce that number to zero. Not only are they going to
recycle pet waste from residential garbage, but they’re going to
pick it up from the city’s dog parks. Since we feed our dogs and
cats such rich diets, their feces have high energy potential.
The feces contain bacteria called methanogens that, under the
right conditions, convert the organic matter in feces to methane
gas. San Francisco will collect its pet feces in biodegradable
bags and then run them through a tank, where the natural process
of methanogenesis will be exploited to produce methane gas. The
gas can then be piped directly into homes.