Turning manure into gold

At a time of global warming, growing environmental concerns and a political situation that is making many industrialised countries critically review their dependency on Middle Eastern oil, the need to develop alternatives to fossil fuels is becoming increasingly important. And this is not just a recurring demand from environmentalists; most industrialised countries signed the Kyoto Treaty, committing themselves to lowering their carbon dioxide emissions in the future. Even in the USA, whose current administration snubbed the Kyoto Treaty, the search for alternatives is on. Congress is debating an energy bill that would place more emphasis on ‘biofuel’, and the Farmer Bill passed last year already includes provisions to increase the amount of ‘biobased’ products for use in cars and industry.![][1] > The biological option of methane production is clearly the most attractive oneOf all the alternatives to oil, coal or natural gas, hydrogen is certainly the gold standard. Its combustion process leaves nothing but pure water, and, when used in fuel cells, it can be converted into electricity with an efficiency that makes all other means of electricity production, whether based on oil, coal, natural gas or nuclear fuels, pale in comparison. But the massive costs involved in establishing the infrastructure required to produce, store and distribute hydrogen means that its utilisation is still years away, despite the fact that car manufacturers in both Europe and the USA are already at an advanced stage in the development of hydrogen‐powered vehicles. One of the main contenders in the chasing pack is methane—a gas that although not quite as environmentally advantageous as hydrogen, is still relatively clean‐burning when compared with other fossil fuels. What is more, it is easier to handle than hydrogen and the infrastructure required for its distribution could easily be adapted from that already in place for natural gas. … [1]: /embed/graphic-1.gif