Free Republic

Microbe communities found in the stomach of cows can break down plastic, potentially offering a sustainable way to help reduce litter, a study has found. Specifically, the organisms come from the rumen — the first and largest of the four compartments that make up the bovine stomach.... ...The team found that the microbes from the cows' rumens were capable of breaking down all three plastics — PET, PBAT, PEF — with the powdered versions, with their greater surface areas to attack, unsurprisingly breaking down faster than the films. Moreover — compared to the results of similar studies conducted using single...

COW POWER Vermont dairy farmers work with a utility to diversify their incomes, using AD systems to generate biogas for electricity. THROUGH its award-winning Cow Power program, Central Vermont Public Service (CVPS), a Vermont utility headquartered in the city of Rutland, is helping dairy farmers diversify their incomes by turning manure into electricity. The farmers process manure in anaerobic digesters to generate power, which CVPS customers voluntarily pay a premium to purchase. In addition to income from electricity sales, farmers are reaping other benefits from digesting the manure, including capturing surplus heat for their farms and hot water, using the...

FOOD and Farming Minister Jeff Rooker has told farmers he is ‘pushing’ his Department to do more to encourage the uptake of anaerobic digestion on UK farms. Specifically, he is asking Defra to look at the possibility of providing assistance to farmers to meet the capital cost of connecting on-farm plants to the National Grid. The Minister is an enthusiast of the technology, which can convert slurry into electricity and fertiliser, and recently visited a Government-funded demonstration plant at Ludlow, Shropshire, that uses waste food and green material. But while the Government has made some moves to encourage uptake, Lord...

RUTLAND— If everything works as well as projected, the Jordan Dairy Farm may one day make money from its manure as well as from its milk. A three-month feasibility study at the farm concluded that an on-site anaerobic digester and generator would produce sufficient energy to cover the farm’s monthly electric bill of $2,400. Carbon credits and green energy credits, which are required by state law for Massachusetts electric utilities, may make the digester profitable for the farm, if enough energy is generated to sell to the power company. As a result of the study, the Massachusetts Dairy Energy group,...