News on extracting gold from cow urine, killing harmful mobile phone radiations by painting your phone with cow dung, etc keep doing rounds everyday in India. But the news that is revolutionary and is about green energy age, is about running heavy duty trucks from cow dung manure and also producing any form of energy from donkey dung. As per the report in CCTV America, Fair Oaks Farms, a dairy farm in the state of Indiana is producing energy from cow manure and using it to propel heavy duty trucks. On the other hand researchers from University of Free State (UFS) in South Africa have discovered that donkey dung can be used in bio gas production in the manufacture of energy, such as electricity generation.

                                                                                 Photo: CCTV America

The Fair Oaks Farms is using a procedure called anaerobic digestion in which microorganisms break down manure, a biodegradable material, and then process it to produce electricity and natural gas (CNG). It is now running its entire fleet of milk trucks on compressed natural gas. The cows on this farm alone produce enough manure in one day to power a truck to drive for 30,000 miles. That’s more than 10 times across the country using clean and affordable fuel. But the trucks that use CNG cost $30,000 to $50,000 more.

As reported in SABC News, Renewable Energy Researcher at UFS, Dr. Patrick Mukumba says the study found that donkey dung is a way to optimize bio gas production, increase fuel content in bio gas and because there is more than 50% methane yield it can produce any form of energy. “The methane content in donkey dung is 50 to 60%, it means now you can use donkey dung for engines, generators. You can also use it towards the methane in the grid because of the high methane as compared to other wastes.” Donkey dung has higher methane content as compared to other wastes, such as cow, goat, chicken and sheep manure. Another advantage with donkeys is that they have higher life span and eat less food.

————————