Digital Commons Network^™

Burning Manure As An Economical Energy Source, Ron Machado

Dairy Science

The dairy industry is under pressure from increasing environmental regulations, falling prices, as well as very aggressive foreign competition. Manure management and electrical costs are one area dairymen can look to cut costs. My objective for this project was to determine how cost effective biomass gasification of manure is at generating electricity. The proposed project was designed for a manure production equal to a 3,000 cow herd. I used standard capital budgeting techniques to determine the efficiency of the project, primarily focusing on the net present value, internal rate of return, and payback period.