Milk Biofuel?

According to an interesting article on MSNBC, researchers these days are looking into the possibility of using all sorts of different waste materials to make biofuels – including spoiled milk. I think it is fantastic any time a ‘waste’ is diverted from landfills, sewers etc and used to create something useful. Of course, I’m a big composting fan, but I also know there are plenty of other great alternatives, not to mention the fact that some organic materials just aren’t ideally suited for the compost heap (I think rotten milk might just be one of them – haha).

The person behind the spoiled-milk-biofuel idea is Masayuki Onodera, a professor/researcher at the Nigata Institute of Technology in Japan. Here is a exerpt from the article:

With a friend whose company transports spoiled milk to a local incinerator, Onodera hit upon the idea of diverting the cargo and putting some of the curdled cow juice to good use.

The professor and his colleagues began their two-step conversion process by brewing a batch of sugar-spiked solution mimicking the bacteria-friendly confines of wastewater. Their small bioreactor relied on heat-loving microbes to digest the sludge in the absence of oxygen at a toasty 131 degrees Fahrenheit, approximating the conditions within some landfills and creating methane as well as carbon dioxide (scientists consider the carbon dioxide release “carbon-neutral” because its escape into the atmosphere is balanced by what had been taken in during photosynthesis by the grass or corn that fed the dairy cows).

Onodera’s team added a portion of the digested glop to a second container filled with rancid milk. When the solution was starved of oxygen and kept at a relatively neutral pH, it yielded eight times its own volume in biogas over a one-week period. Half the captured biogas was hydrogen, the other half carbon dioxide. By periodically replacing part of the bacteria-laden sludge with milk and making sure the solution remained at the right pH, Onodera found that the system continuously produced biogas until he stopped it 100 days later. By then, the solution was yielding more than five times its own volume in biogas every two days.

Be sure to check out the full article here: Got Milk? Convert It Into Biofuel

In my mind, it is these sorts of applications that make the most sense when it comes to creating biofuels. The idea of using high quality agricultural land to grow crops that will be converted into biofuel on the other hand, just seems a wee bit crazy!
Maybe it’s just me!

[tags]biofuel, biogas, methane, hydrogen, wastes, landfill gas, alternative fuels, green energy[/tags]

Written by Compost Guy on April 1st, 2008 with no comments.
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Interesting Bokashi Article

I just came across a short, but interesting article over on the Path to Freedom blog (known as “Little Homestead in the City”) called ‘LOOK MA, NO FERTILIZERS‘. Apparently they have gone a full year without applying NPK fertilizers, yet are on a mission to double the amount of food grown!

One thing I’m a wee bit confused about is their mention of adding the EM Bokashi mix directly to the soil. There is no mention of setting up a typical bucket with food scraps + bokashi and then adding all that to the soil. Hmmm…

Anyway, I highly recommend you check out the Little Homestead in the City blog, and the Path to Freedom website in general (I’ve added them to our list of ‘Eco-Friends’ in the sidebar). It is a phenomenal resource for anyone interested in urban agriculture and sustainable living.

In unrelated bokashi news…

As you may recall, I recently added a substantial amount of aged bokashi + food scraps to one of my indoor worm bins to see how the wigglers would react. The first worms to explore the new ‘food’ seemed to be juveniles, while the adults down below seemed somewhat slower to respond. I’ve read that worms born into a certain environment are far better adapted for that environment than the parents originally introduced from elsewhere, so this may explain why the young ones were more eager to move into the new material (since they’ve only ever known kitchen waste). I suspect the older worms were waiting until the materials became somewhat more aerobic. I had a look today and they (the adults) seem to be moving up into the material more. There also seems to be a lot more pot worms (aka ‘white worms’) in there now as well – likely due to the somewhat acidic conditions.

Once I open up my big outdoor worm bin (hopefully this week) I’m going to try adding a large quantity of bokashi food scraps to see what happens. I still have a lot of material that needs to find a home so I can start the bins over again. It may be awhile before I can add it directly to the garden.

[tags]bokashi, em, path to freedom, sustainable living, urban agriculture, urban farming, compost, composting, vermicomposting, worm composting[/tags]

Written by Compost Guy on April 1st, 2008 with 3 comments.
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Off to the Races

Ok everyone – we are back in business! From the look of things I’d say we’re definitely on a faster server! The site is now loading much more quickly for me. Thank goodness!

Hopefully I won’t have to worry about hosting again for a LONG time!
8)

Written by Compost Guy on April 1st, 2008 with no comments.
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