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Re-activate Can a cow boil water? Yes, if her name's Daisy and she's on the set of MythBusters. Tasked with proving or busting the myth that you can harness power from cow poop, show regulars Tory Belleci and Grant Imahara collected a day's worth of cow manure and put it in a methane digester. Fast forward 72 hours and they were boiling water on a camp stove powered solely by methane.
That's one way to get rid of the stuff. Consumers have been encouraged for years to help reduce greenhouse gases so isn't it time that cows did their part? Cows produce so much methane gas that the bovines are a major source of greenhouse gases, according to Penn State University. Recently, a dairy scientist at the university found that an oregano-based feed supplement lowered methane emissions in dairy cows by 40 percent. The supplement also increased daily milk production, according to Alexander Hristov, an associate professor of dairy nutrition and developer of the supplement. Some feed antibiotics can also reduce bovine gas production, but Hristov set out to find a natural solution.
"Compared to carbon dioxide, methane has 23 times the potential to create global warming," Hristov said in a press release. While methane production is a natural part of the cows' digestive process, Hristov points out that "any cut in the methane emissions would be beneficial."
We agree and apparently so does GE whose Genbacher engine can generate 4 megawatts of energy from methane, enough to power 3,100 homes. Even Daisy was amazed—that's the daily waste of 28,000 cows.
—Kimberly Janeway
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