Poop is Power

Poop is Power — page 3 — Leroy hopes to start up his own company someday with the goal of providing communities like his with clean fuel and healthy sanitation A Biogas Reactor inlet gas outlet pipe collecting tank biogas tank 6

Poop is Power — page 4 — In many rural areas around the world wood for cooking fuel can be scarce Plus wood fires can cause respiratory problems and other health risks from smoke inhalation A system similar to Leroy’s is being constructed in areas such as Nepal in South Central Asia Single-family biogas plants or factories work to collect animal manure human waste and plant materials The methane gas the plant produces is stored in a gas tank and a metal pipe with a valve supplies the family with flames for cooking their meals Natural Gas Natural gas is a fossil fuel that was created by the breakdown of organic materials from plants and animals that were alive millions of years ago The gas is stored beneath Earth’s surface 7

Poop is Power — page 5 — In India and many other countries the hara stove is widely used in rural areas where wood is scarce The pot used for cooking food sits directly on the dung cakes Making use of poop is nothing new despite the pee-yew factor People have burned dried manure for as long as they’ve had agriculture and domestic animals Archaeologists have found ancient evidence of dried dung used as fire fuel in Incan remains They think the dung fire was used for heat and to cure ceramic pottery Early Americans also used dried dung for both heating and cooking And in modern Egypt residents use dry animal dung mixed with plant residues Dung cakes known as gella or jilla still make up much of the available cooking and heating fuel in many rural areas Poop is just one of the many biological materials called biomass which has the potential to create bioenergy 8

Poop is Power — page 6 — Burning wood is the oldest kind of biomass energy used on Earth Poop is considered a biogas product because it produces gas Biogas can also be produced from crops such as corn wheat and sugarcane as well as agricultural waste products and algae The composting process of all biogas material produces the gas that can potentially help power the world and have a positive impact on climate change But just how much power is in poop Cooking with Dung in the 1880s in America Here is the rundown of the operations that mother went through when making baking powder biscuits Stoke the stove get out the flour sack stoke the stove wash your hands mix the biscuit dough stoke the stove wash your hands cut out the biscuits with the top of a baking powder can stoke the stove wash your hands put the pan of biscuits in the oven keep on stoking the stove until the biscuits are done not forgetting to wash the hands before taking up the biscuits From Western Story The Recollections of Charley O’Kieffe 1884 1898 University of Nebraska Press 1960 9

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