Thursday, February 21, 2008

Bellygrass and beyond!

Well, I've seen the future and its called bellygrass...

At yesterday's Oireachtas Committee on Climate Change a presentation given by Jerry Murphy of UCC had us all sitting up on our hind legs. He talked about biofuel and grass can be used to make gas for fuel. Since over 90% of Ireland's arable land is in grass this was significant. But what really got our questions coming was his explanation of how "bellygrass" is used in Europe for gas production for buses.

Bellygrass for those of us who don't know- and there are many - is found in cows and pigs slaughtered in our abattoirs.

Currently the bellygrass has to be carted away and spread on land and that costs the abattoir money.

In the future it can go to a digester system, converted to biofuel and used in buses etc..

While no-one has the solution to the problem of methane produced by belching cows, dead cows may provide part of the solution.

Or at least the grass in their stomachs. Don't they have four of them?

1 comment:

Michaela Avlund said...

Loved your speech in the Dail about looking after the elderly and other people who will experience fuel poverty, but to do it with sustainable energy. Even insulating housing better and sharing of solar panels as I understand a lot of hot water can be produced by only a few panels.

Yours sincerely Michaela Avlund
B.A. Student of Applied Social Care