Design a Stove to Burn Methane Fuel from Bovine Dung

Who would think that cow's waste can be a source of fuel? The fact is that many people all over the world already know that cow (more appropriately, bovine) dung is a good source of fuel for heating abodes and cooking food. It's been done through ages by drying cow dung patties and then lighting them up in a fireplace or stove to produce environmental heat or for cooking. Modern society has long forgotten about the value of cow dung for energy. Fortunately, consciousness about the energy crisis and climate change have spurred research into an old custom where new gas-harvesting technology can be used.

When burned, the gas produced from cow dung is over 50% methane - a vital fuel and also a greenhouse gas. This is why burning cow dung is considered by some to be harmful to the environment because methane which works as a greenhouse gas. It traps heat in the atmosphere and warms the earth. To be really environmentally friendly, the gas needs to be trapped and burned efficiently with hardly any getting released into the air. What is needed are good stove systems for harvesting the gas from cow dung and then storing it for later use on a burning apparatus for heating, cooking, or some other energy-hungry function.

Experimenting with cow dung used in specialized stoves is one way of contributing to a better environment. Who knows how many tons of cow dung are burned every day in many parts of the world? If there are no firewood to burn, people would just use cow dung and this, while helpful, still adds to the methane in the atmosphere if the burning process is highly inefficient. What is needed is a cheap yet effective stove, like the SolHuma Vital Stove pictured on top, that burns and utilizes cow dung well during combustion.

Designing and making a good cow-dung stove is one project that is simple yet can be potentially helpful to the environment and millions of poor people worldwide. In approaching the project, do consider the following which your new stove should exhibit:

1. emits little smoke
2. leaves little ash
3. requires minimal dung
4. heat distribution to cooking utensil
5. little maintenance
6. easily transportable
   

It also pays to know these additional facts about cow dung:

A pound of cow dung can produce one cubic foot of gas when burned at 75 degrees Fahrenheit. This can be enough to cook 3 meals a day for a single person for about a week. One cow can produce enough dung in one year to produce methane equal to 50 gallons of gasoline. Cow dung can be dangerous when burned if it contains toxins that the cows absorbed from eating contaminated grass. Cow dung to be burned for fuel should be sourced well. In India, there have been reports of arsenic poisoning from cow dung used for fuel.

While stove design can have a variety of appearances and engineering, it should be designed for use in third world countries where cow dung is the primary source of energy.

References to existing stove designs:

Cow-dung stove by Kumar and Shende. Click here.

The next link that follows will take you to the web page that features the QB charcoal-burning stove invented by Edelmiro I. Quibilian of the Philippines. The QB stove covers much of the issues regarding efficiency. Although it's not really designed for cow dung, it can be a good example to guide you in designing and making your cow-dung stove.

QB Charcoal Burning Stove from the Philippines

Here is a related video on how cow dung is used in Israel to produce electricity.