What fraction of natural gas consumption could the US obtain by composting cattle manure? The US cattle herd was 95,497,994 in 2002
http://www.nass.usda.gov/census/census02...
US natural gas consumption in 2006 was 21,653 billion cubic feet
http://www.eia.doe.gov/basics/energybasi...

Bangladesh has 20,000 cattle manure composters built with materials costing less than $2000 each. How many composters does the US have?

Best Answer

in Bangladesh, a composter is likely to be a half of a large drum, immersed in a vat of water, in which dung is dumped in the side, and the resulting methane is caught in the drum and used for cooking.
i think this is not likely to catch on in a large way around the more dainty US.

as to the US cows, i%26#039;d guess that less than half are contained in feed lots where the manure could be composted.
add to that i don%26#039;t know how much methane is produced, and the answer is not at all obvious.
then there%26#039;s the method to consider.
how will it be done?

not trying to rain on your parade, but there are a considerable number of questions here.

Asker's Rating:

Thanks for raising the issues.

Other Answers (2)

• It would be less than the energy that could be obtained by burning the grass *before* it goes through a cow.
• about 1 to 7 percent.