On Tue, 20 Nov 2007 18:44:32 +0000, Paul Ciszek wrote:
> There are several chemical/biological techniques that could in theory be
> used to turn manure into petroleum-like fuels. According to one site,
> manure is too pricey a feedstock--it has value elsewhere, primarily as
> fertilizer, and fuel makers would have to bid against other buyers.
> According to another site with different issues, there are lagoons
> overflowing with unwanted, unusable manure. Someone who is no more a
> farmer than I am suggested that the problem could be seasonal demand and
> non-seasonal production. Since I don't know ****, I figure I should ask
> some people who actually participate in agriculture:
There is also a local demand vs. non-local production, with almost
prohibitive costs and/or regulations to get the manure from the
production site to the site where it's needed.
> 1) Is there a net surplus of manure, or a net demand for it, or both at
> different times of year?
>
> 2) Are there farmers currently paying for manure? Are there farmers
> currently paying to get rid of manure?
At this time, as far as I know, European hog growers pay you something
like 12 euro (almost US$18) for getting one metric ton out of their
sceptic tanks, whereas in the Philippines, farmers pay about 50 euro
(almost US$ 75) for 1 ton of dried chicken manure.
> 3) Is there any "agricultural waste" (defined as pretty much anything
> that used to be part of a plant or animal, or passed through the gut
> of an animal) that is genuinely unwanted and could be hauled away for
> free, yet whose supply would be more or less predictable and
> reliable? (We'll take the jokes about zucchini as already said.)
Hardly, I think.
If there is supposed to be something of that matter, I guess it's more
because people don't know yet how to use it in a valuable way.
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