A dairy farm in Brown County is home to both thousands of cows and a 20 million dollar project to develop technology that can convert manure into fuel. The University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and Agra Energy, a startup interested in renewable diesel and jet fuel, have collaborated with a dairy farm that already collects methane released from manure with a goal of creating liquid fuel. This operation is expected to produce 750,000 gallons of liquid fuel every year, and the technology can even be used to make liquid fuel from food waste. 

While many Wisconsin Dairy farms have already taken part in the harnessing of the methane released from manure, the unique property of the Dairyland Farms project is the ability to create liquid fuel that can be used in place of diesel and even jet fuel. There is a sizable market for this fuel, too, as petroleum companies have been interested in purchasing renewable fuels due to California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard, which encourages them to by handing out carbon credits to those who purchase their fuel from renewable energy sources.

This project has sparked debate, as the conversion of methane into liquid fuel does not reduce the methane released by cows, but simply repurposes it, so it isn’t clean energy. Additionally, the carbon credits that have been introduced encourage farms to raise even more cattle, meaning more methane could be produced than before the legislation was made. That being said, although the total methane released by cows might increase as a result of this new standard, it would be used by machines that would likely need that fuel anyway, so it would just be taken from the ground and combusted. At least this way, a large proportion of the fuel produced from this project would be sourced from methane that might have been created and released into the atmosphere anyway. In addition, this project might encourage farms that didn’t store the methane released from manure to adopt a system like that of Dairyland Farms, as selling that methane will increase the farm’s income, as well as giving petroleum companies carbon credits and reducing the amount of fuels extracted from the Earth, as the renewable fuel will take its place. Considering how many cows are already farmed worldwide due to the strong and widespread demand for beef, it’s likely that this project and the recent legislation will have more benefits than downsides for the environment.

My English class is currently focusing on research, so I had an assignment in which I had to read an article, summarize it, and evaluate it. Although the summary did not need to go as in-depth as I do for this website, and only needed 3-4 sentences, I decided I should also create a more detailed summary for this website, so I could share what I’ve learned here as well.

I originally wanted to write about what I’d heard online about Shell dropping a commitment they made to become carbon neutral, but I didn’t find an article about it. However, in my search, I came across this article, which piqued my interest, so I chose that instead.

Anyway, I’ll see you next week, so stay tuned to learn with me!

Barrett, Rick. “Powered by Cows: This Dairy Farm Aims to Convert Manure into Diesel, Jet Fuel.” Green Bay Press Gazette, Nov 26, 2022. ProQuest, https://proxy.sierracollege.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/powered-cows/docview/2740115119/se-2.