@Spr1g@mastodon.socialNatural gas is mostly just methane; the same gas created from human waste. 
The methane is created even if we don't use it, so some say we should use it for power generation, fuel for vehicles, and to create biosolid compost.
These options could also help with providing incentives for all cities to stop dumping raw sewage(yes, many places still do that).
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@Spr1g Aha! So, #Humanure could power us during the transition to #Renewables! I remember reading about how some landfills are being tapped for methane which is used for fuel.
#SolarPunkSunday #SolarPunk
@DoomsdaysCW hahaha thank you for sharing the word "humanure" with me. 
That's perfect
@DoomsdaysCW Does humanure still give off methane if it is properly composted? I know I should look it up myself, and will when spoons. Wondering if better to stop it through proper composting or burn it for power? Thoughts?
@BrambleBearGrrrauwling @DoomsdaysCW @Spr1g
Methane is generally produced by anaerobic composting-- but that can also be "proper" depending on the composting system and its goals.
(Methane can be collected and burned as fuel instead of being released, which accelerates its eventual breakdown into less greenhouse gassy C02. Most composting releases some C02, the aerobic biological activity is breathing just like we do)
@violetmadder Ah! Ok, that makes sense. Thank you! Bigger sources than a small home humanure set up could harvest what is happening anyway? Worth doing some research to learn more. So much to learn!
@BrambleBearGrrrauwling @DoomsdaysCW @Spr1g
A small home humanure setup can definitely be used to generate methane for household use-- basically just a sewage pit with a rubber cover on it to trap the gas and a tube, I saw a documentary showing how that was used in very rural offgrid areas in China where they'd been using up too many trees for firewood to cook for example.
You wouldn't want anything major to go wrong, of course, but it's doable.
@violetmadder @BrambleBearGrrrauwling @DoomsdaysCW @Spr1g
You can put a wire mesh cage in a pond over 2m deep (low oxygen that far down) with a tube to send organic material into it (with lid and maybe a plunger) and a funnel over it to catch methane. Top of funnel is 11" below water surface, which provides standard 15psi gas pressure to your stove/furnace/etc.
This is either in "PERMACULTURE: a Designer's Manual" or something Farmer Dave Blume told me in person? I'll see if I can find it...
@violetmadder @DoomsdaysCW @Spr1g
I will have to check into that! Thanks for the info!
Interesting article... So, ammonia found in humanure inhibits methane production. However, the addition of chicken feathers seems to be a workaround! I did not know that!
@BrambleBearGrrrauwling @Spr1g
How #biogas from human waste will lead to energy independence
Chicken feathers enhance the quality of biogas produced from human waste, allowing impoverished communities to generate their own power.
by Victoria Corless | Apr 14, 2022
"Accessible and affordable biogas
The solution they propose centers around the production of biogas, conventional sources of which include #FoodScraps, #wastewater, and animal #manure. But human waste could provide a viable, renewable source of energy, especially in regions of the world where energy supplies are unstable.
"'The shift into animal waste such as poultry droppings and cattle dung has huge prospects, but it is not sustainable in the long term as rural farmers depend on it,' said the researchers. 'The use of human excreta is the most available and sustainable due to the human population.'
"One challenge, however, is the ammonia naturally found in human waste, which inhibits the growth of #methane-producing bacteria and results in impure biogas with high levels of nitrogen. Chemical and microbial pretreatments are an option, but the team wanted to develop a truly sustainable and accessible solution to meet energy demands in impoverished regions.
"The trick, according to the study published recently in Global Challenges, is to combine the waste with powdered chicken feathers. The feathers are themselves useful in generating biogas, but only when pretreated to make them amenable to anaerobic digestion. Instead of adding an additional treatment step, the scientists let the microbes found naturally in human waste do all the work for them.
"In a laboratory-scale biodigestor, the team mixed together powdered chicken feathers and human waste in a 1:5 ratio and allowed the solution to incubate, measuring the quantity and quality of biogas produced over roughly two months. Compared to controls that contained no powdered chicken feathers, the biogas produced when the feathers were co-digested with the human waste contained, at minimum, 68% less nitrogen and 73% more methane.
“This experimentation means that there could be minimum nitrogen content with more microbes in the human excreta acting on the chicken feather as biotreatment,” said the authors. “The extensive effect of the microbes can be seen in the improved carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide content [of the biogas].'"
https://www.advancedsciencenews.com/how-biogas-from-human-waste-will-lead-to-energy-independence/
@BrambleBearGrrrauwling @DoomsdaysCW @Spr1g Can be done on a small scale as well with biogas/digester. I haven't done anything with it yet, but Kathy Puffer is passionate about it. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCryDu9YZNwXjSQnxCDsKqXA
