CBB Member David Simakov, Chemical Engineering, discovers that farm manure holds the possibility of acting as a source of renewable energy to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Simakov and team are developing technology that would allow for the production of renewable gas from manure to be added to an existing energy supply system to heat homes and power industries. This would help eliminate harmful gases released by naturally decomposing manure when spread on farms as fertilizer. It may also partially replace the use of fossil natural gases, which contribute significantly to global warming.
Simakov says that "there are multiple ways to benefit from this single approach." The technology could work with several kinds of manure, such as cow and pig manure, and would also work at landfill sites. Renewable natural gas could replace diesel fuel for trucks in the transportation sector, a major source of greenhouse gas emissions.