h a l f b a k e r yExpensive, difficult, slightly dangerous, not particularly effective... I'm on a roll.
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At large modern cow barns and barns for other
domesticated animals there is a problem several months
of
the year when the dung is too dry (over 12% dry
material).
The pumps cannot pull the dung from the pores where
they
are gathered 3 times a day. For that reason expensive
water is added,
and then dried again later.
A new garbage system in my city has giant underground
garbage containers. The pores (holes) are exactly the
same size as those on the barns - 60 cubic meters 3.5
meters deep. It seems they are made with the same
'standard' digging machine. (Probably the German
digging
company - forgot their name).
So all that's needed is for a system with these giant bags
and a crane, instead of the pump. The bags - or rather
sacks can be closed before removal, to minimize the
odor -
ok lets call it by its name: stink.
It's a stinky gold mine.
[link]
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If the holes were cylindrical, one could pack the dry dung down tightly with a ramrod. Then compressed air or a small explosive charge at the bottom will cause the dung cylinder to hop neatly up out of the barrel and into a train. Biogas produced onsite could be sued for the explosive. |
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//Biogas produced onsite could be sued for the explosive.// |
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Right. People don't maim people. Biogas-propelled dung cylinders maim people. |
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"Crain" seems like a perfectly good english word. "Rain" has a thing going with essentially every other hard consonant, excepting P. I wonder how crain was overlooked? |
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The farm is not far from people. The terrible smell is a
serious concern. The current method is to add water
and pump. That too is extremely stinky. Bulldozers
are not an option. |
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Bulldozers are _always_ an option. |
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One of the permaculture books has an idea that covers the moving of dry dung: |
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Provide a sloping access to the pit from outside the building. Park a trailer in the pit, under the opening or grate that the dung falls through. When the trailer is full, tow it out with a tractor and replace with an empty one. Of course, that system wouldn't cope so well with overly wet dung. |
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If cow dung is not allowed to become saturated with water or overly compacted, and so remains aerobic, it never really stinks. In fact, as it decays it produces a series of farmy, mushroomy, earthy smells, which are actually somewhat pleasant. |
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The problem here is maybe //large modern cow barns//. That they are also //not far from people// adds to it. |
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Why use expensive water to wet the dung? Plumb the human sewage system into this network to provide "cheap" water. If you are running septic tanks, or don't want to contaminate the bovine biomass waste with human waste, then just plumb the "number one", or other grey water, effluent into the cow patty disposal system. That might get you out of the hole urine. |
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4whom that's an interesting thought. |
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The almost completely treated sewage of Jerusalem
passes just under the cow farm on its way to the last
treatment center (which leaves it clean for drinking!,
although no-one dares). |
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I'll check if they ever gave that direction a thought. |
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Where does the water go after the last treatment center? I would think that if the next stop for the water leaves it clean for drinking, maybe it comes back and the cows are already drinking it. Cows are not too picky that way. Even if the dung project does not pan out that might be a watersaving solution for the cows. |
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In my experience, confined cows are producing enough liquid waste--urine--to dilute their overall output to an average of gloppy mush, at driest. Unless you have a way to separate liquids and solids, you aren't getting dry dung in the first place. But separation is possible, and does happen--I'm just trying to say that if you are looking for liquids, the cows will provide. |
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If you are going to ship dry dung, be sure to conform to the urban legend and stencil the bags with the abbreviation for "Ship High In Transit". |
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Anaerobic fermentation to produce methane; catalytic cracking to make longer-chain alkanes. Power the process by burning some of the methane. Energetically, probably much better than coal hydrogenation or Fisher-Tropsch. |
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Steam reforming would produce all sorts of interesting molecules, too. |
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vacuum dry: kills most/all the bacteria and reduces the volume for inert storage. |
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When enough has been collected, add a high yield bacteria strain for methane production, or go straight to pyrolization. |
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I am looking at the size of those pores. 3.5 meters is deep doodoo. |
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It occurs to me that if treated wastewater from Jerusalem cannot be used one could use seawater. |
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If the cattle normally have a particular orientation within
the barn, then why not have strategically-located Teflon-
coated portions of the barn floor? |
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Because on a slippery floor, a cow can fall and break a leg or a hip - and that's the end of that cow. Teflon covered in cowshit is liable to have an unacceptably low coefficient of friction - ridged concrete is bad enough ... |
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A quick run-through with a squeegee on the front of a quadbike will gather more manure than you can imagine, or want. |
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And kids willing to drive the poop Zamboni should be readily available - you could even charge them a token amount for the privilege. |
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I didn't say cover the whole floor. "Strategically located
portions" would be the places upon which we could expect
dung to plop. I'm assuming the cattle would prefer to not
step there? |
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I think the cattle prefer to step there. It's squishy. |
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I am thinking though, about these 3.5 meter "pores". They have to do something to keep the cows away from the edge. That means poop is being swept into pores at some distance from the cows. Solution: in dry weather don't use the pores. |
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// I'm assuming the cattle would prefer to not step there? // |
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We're certain that you have absolutely no familiarity whatsoever with the habits and behaviour of domestic cattle. |
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//places upon which we could expect dung to plop.// |
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That would be:
- all horizontal areas accessible to the cow
- all vertical areas accessible to the cow
- the margins of the first set to a distance ballistically reachable
from a 1.5 meter height at 10 m/sec
- the expanded margins of the first set to a distance of at least ten
meters on
any negative grade (100 meters if weather is not dry)
- the margins of the second set to a distance of at least one meter
above the maximum reach of any cow |
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No, cows do not avoid plop zones. Cows will do everything
necessary or possible to get into, and enlarge, plop zones. |
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Thanks, [lurch]; that was humorous. I should say that I
wrote what I wrote because of some personal experience,
living in a small town as a child, near a field where cows
grazed. I remember seeing cow-patties in the field, but I
don't remember seeing hoofprints in the cow-patties. |
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