Posted on 09/13/2010 12:26:12 PM PDT by billorites
A methane digester called "Park Spark" has been installed in a dog park in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The device produces methane by bacterial digestion of the dog excrement, and the methane is used to light a gas-burning street lamp.
People walking their dogs are encouraged to collect the feces, place them into the supplied biodegradable doggie bags and drop them into the digester feeding tube. They then turn a hand crank to stir the mixture of excrement and anaerobic bacteria in the Spark Park digester and help the methane rise to the top where it is burned constantly in the lamp, like an “eternal flame”.
The bacteria are confined to an underground container and the methane is piped underground to the lamp. Methane is the colorless and odorless gas that forms the major component of “natural gas” used for cooking and heating.
The idea was the brainchild of Matthew Mazzotta, a conceptual artist, and the project was partly funded by the Council of the Arts at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The team hopes there will be enough methane generated to power other objects in the park and surrounding community, such as shadow projection boxes, tea carts, or popcorn stands, but the main aim is to demonstrate to the community that waste is a precious resource. “As long as people are walking dogs and throwing away dog poo, a flame can burn,” they say on their website.
The eternal flame of the lamp is intended as a reminder of the “redundant and unquestioned” nature of our behavior, and will burn until someone comes up with a better idea for using the energy available.
Methane digesters are used in many places around the world for cooking, heating and lighting. They can use almost any organic materials, and large scale digesters often use materials such as cow manure. The results of methane combustion are CO2 and water, and while CO2 is a greenhouse gas, methane is over 20 times more potent.
A methane digester called “Park Spark” has been installed in a dog park in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The device produces methane by bacterial digestion of the dog excrement, and the methane is used to light a gas-burning street lamp.”
Their idiocy knows no bounds in the PR of C. Hell of a thing to be focused on, dogshit.
It doesn’t all turn to methane. Some poor schlub’s gotta clean it out. I’m guessing it’s gonna cost twice to three times to maintain that than an electric lamp.
Mmmmmmmmm, poopcorn.
“It doesn’t all turn to methane. Some poor schlub’s gotta clean it out. I’m guessing it’s gonna cost twice to three times to maintain that than an electric lamp.”
Oammy’s grammy will get the job for 14,000 per and generous retirement with full pay and bennies.
You’ve gotta be sh*tting me?
Can they get an ALPO endorsement?
Maybe Colorado Springs could look into this so we can turn some street lights back on...lol
When did Colorado Springs go dark ?!
Also, Which end goes in Barney Frank, The top to fuel him, or the bottom so he can fuel it ?
Mmmmmm....My Newfy mix could heat the house!
that is from the Mass-of-2-$h!ts national anthem...as song by the late great Teddy the Swimmer.
“...from the dog poops red glare, f@rts bursting in air...”
I’m sure a $60K year union employee with juicy benefits and backloaded pension periodically “cleans” this piece o’ crap (pun intended).
get a dozen illegals to walk the dogs and they could light up the Red Sox stadium
Neither. Without going into details, let's just say that nobody has to turn the crank.
Last Spring, they turned off any street lights not at an intersection (but some of those were switched off as well), and any lights near where business lighting would fulfill the need. They actually have a small surplus of funds right now, and they are trying to figure out how to spend it, but lighting has not been mentioned from what I have heard. They have talked about hiring fire and police back or something, which I guess is ok, but chances are they will p!ss it away on something stupid. They were good at that in the good times.
Hook it up to Harvard and you could light up Boston.
The call it art to justify the huge cost compared to conventional means of lighting.
Sounds like something the doctor from “Back To The Future” would come up with.
Pretty sh**** thing to do if you ask me.
Actually, you can design methane-production units so that your waste product is a good soil-adjunct (like peat-moss) and the methane-for-burning [IIRC] is fairly free of contaminants.
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