Nebraska Could Run on Manure - Literally

All those who live in Nebraska, as well as many who live outside the Cornhusker state, know that Nebraska's economy relies on corn and cows. However, for a good number of Nebraskans, the smell of manure is not the smell of money. Unfortunately, those of us who do not receive a direct financial benefit from the cows in the state still have to deal with the smell of the more than one thousand feedlots on record with Nebraska's Department of Agriculture. Since farmers in the state are not likely to give up their feedlots any time in the foreseeable future, the Nebraska Public Power District should look into the potential for using manure-derived methane as an energy source.

Another general bit of knowledge about Nebraska is that we get our electricity from coal-burning power plants. Although the NPPD is slowly beginning to tap into wind power, Nebraska’s community-based power production system has overlooked another potentially endless source of energy in the state: manure. Under correct feedlot conditions, manure produces methane, which is both the major component of natural gas and a cleaner-burning fuel than coal according to NaturalGas.org.

In fact, one ethanol plant in Mead, Nebraska has begun to use the methane from some of Nebraska's manure in a unique way. The Genesis plant is actually an ethanol plant attached to a feed lot. Essentially, an article in The Farmer explains that the corn byproduct from ethanol production gets fed directly to the cows in the attached feedlot, the cow manure produces methane through an anaerobic process, and the methane powers the ethanol plant. In this system, the plant produces its own methane rather than buying natural gas.

Potentially, if all Nebraska feedlots were equipped to turn manure into methane, Nebraska could replace some or all of the energy produced from coal with cleaner energy produced from methane. Although the NPPD is developing wind energy, an article in the Omaha World Herald claims that we will be exporting at least some of this energy to "big-population centers." If the NPPD is going to market wind energy, they could potentially earn more money, and therefore decrease energy costs for Nebraskans, by utilizing energy from methane as well as from wind. If Nebraska receives power from feedlot-produced methane, the smell of the feedlots may be a little more tolerable for those of us who are not cattle farmers.