Thursday, December 16, 2010

Renewable Natural Gas - What is up with the cow belching?

Oregano, the solution to the problem, or the problem to the solution?

According to Wikipedia
"Renewable natural gas, also known as sustainable natural gas, is a biogas which has been upgraded to a quality similar to fossil natural gas. A biogas is a gas methane obtained from biomass. By upgrading the quality to that of natural gas, it becomes possible to distribute the gas to customers via the existing gas grid, and burned within existing appliances."

With Kennecott's recent announcement to move to using natural gas for power, and Utah being in the top 10 states with natural gas reserves, what is stopping Utah from promoting what we have and making more?

According to the Salt Lake Tribune:
"The company will retire three coal-fired plants and replace them by 2014 with a gas-fired plant that not only generates electricity but also captures and uses waste heat. Kennecott will gain 100 megawatts of new power, while dramatically reducing pollutants at the company’s refinery, located near the southern edge of Great Salt Lake.

"The proposed changes, which require state approval, would reduce Kennecott’s overall air pollution by 20 percent."

As discussed in The Huffington Post, Utah already has great potential for Solar, Wind and Geothermal, why not add more biogas production to the mix? We seem to have enough hog, cow and turkey farms, along with plenty of generated garbage. We are doing some in this area, what can we do to be better?

Oregano, the solution to the problem, or the problem to the solution?

http://www.examiner.com/environmental-news-in-kansas-city/what-goes-well-with-belching-cow-oregano