Seven hundred million pigs produce SYDNEY (Reuters) - a lot of POO.
China's love pork presents a problem for the environment, 1.4 million tonnes of pig POO a year, to be exact, a mountain, but an Australian company believes it is part of the answer.
Why not turn the pig POO into electricity?
With a bioreactor, called "PooCareTM" and other technologies, the swine manure is converted into biomass for cooking and heating, while the rest to farmers as a nutrient-rich fertilizer.
"The benefits are to prevent energy and fuel for farmers, as well as further contamination of the environment," said Ravi Naidu, chief scientist at CRC for contamination assessment and remediation of the environment (CRC care), a South Australian based company in the preparation of the technology involved.
"There is a green technology from this perspective, really" Naidu, a Professor of the University of South Australia, told of Reuters.
Which includes a bioreactor 30 m (98 ft) long process, 10 m (33 ft) high and 4 m (13 ft) wide. It is under the Earth and waste is fed by it slowly at a given temperature.
This converts solid waste in a bio-gas, which then is pumped through gas tanks, which can be delivered to the local community. The entire process takes about a month, with the first biogas generator already on a farm in Wuhan, to run central China.
China has an estimated 700 million pigs, approximately two-thirds of the meat consumed it every year to produce, so the extent of the problem can not be underestimated.
Only one-tenth of pig waste as fertilizer used. Estimates are the nutrients lost in the waste of a pig alone value over a$ 50 (32 pounds) per year. There is a wide disparity in rural and urban income with farmers earn approximately $75 per month.
The possible health risks are even worse.
"Pig waste contains a high level of nitrates, which can contaminate ground water in liquid form and in Flake form can result in contamination of lakes, where human health danger", Naidu said.
Kong-based technology helped Chinese scientists and Hong HLM Asia Ltd company in the development of technology, which costs approximately $35,000 for a bioreactor. Mass production would reduce costs, Naidu said.
(Edit by Elaine lies, and Paul Tait)
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