GAINESVILLE, Fla. – They finally did it - gasoline from cow shit. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine this would occur. Stop the shipments of oil from the Middle East! We’re saved.
Sakae Shibusawa, an engineering professor at the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology successfully extracted ‘gasoline’ from bovine excrement using several unspecified metal catalysts, temperatures three times the boiling point of water and pressures thirty times that of Earth’s atmosphere, the Associated Press reported via CNN.
The report also indicated the aromatic oil vanillin had also been successfully extracted from cattle dung by the Sekisui Chemical Co.
For the energy-starved and land-deprived islands of Japan, the results of gasoline study struck the researchers as a goose that lays golden eggs. "The new technology will be a boon for livestock breeders," Shibusawa told the AP.
How much waste are we talking about? Around 500,000 metric tons per year, he says. That’s a lot of shit for a small island nation!
What does this mean? Looking at the numbers, if the process can be applied to all of Japan’s cow crap, the result would be a little more than 1.58 million U.S. gallons of gasoline per year. Those numbers are meager compared to nearly 9 million barrels (378 million gallons) a day consumed in the United States.
But assuming that the process is economically feasible and accommodations can be made for all of the manure to be processed, this discovery could be a formidable secondary source of biofuel for the Japanese. Still, it is hardly enough to compensate for a serious supply interruption.
The AP report, however, did not clarify the specifics of the gasoline concoction, which can have anywhere from 150 to 200 variable and loosely defined constituents, that was produced by the experiment. Octane is one of these variables and is used to ‘grade’ fuels for consumers. Since the study has yet to be published, it is anyone’s guess what exactly was in Shibusawa’s brew.
His study may be promising for countries with larger land masses, such as the United States and China, which produce greater quantities of bovine and other ruminant manure. Even if the method isn’t the most inexpensive and trouble-free option for manure management, it could well join the litany of viable energy alternatives – not to mention, a terrific domestic source for Starbuck’s vanilla macchiato!
Furthermore, as a biofuel and source of ‘green energy’, this product may find a niche market in an environmentally minded public. Still, the gasoline extracted from dung would release the same pollutants as gasoline distilled from petroleum.
Although the vanillin find may not have the impact of Shibusawa’s findings, the study has exposed another option for ‘natural’ vanillin, which is safer for use in foods and other consumables than the industrially synthesized variety. But either way, if your vanilla flavoring is made from crap, you lose.
Other sources for ‘natural’ vanillin extraction include clove oil and eugenol (extract of eucalyptus).
The processes used to extract both the gasoline and vanillin are similar in that they both involve pressure and heat. But if the requirements for vanillin extraction are less than those for gasoline extraction, then both of these novel methods can be applied to the same raw material - assuming the volatile hydrocarbons extracted from the manure are derived from long carbon-chain molecules present in cow dung.
Clearly it is overoptimistic to think these studies will have a significant economic impact on any nation. But if a low cost, low tech method can be engineered, many poor, agrarian nations could have a “cash cow” on their hands. If the dung from other ruminants, including goats, sheep, camels, llamas and yaks, also contains the essential constituents for hydrocarbon and aromatic oil extraction, just imagine the money to be made with a menagerie. Even if the cost is high, technologically advanced nations with geospatial concerns, such as Japan and Great Britain, could employ this technology, not only to alleviate waste management problems but also as relief for an ever-growing dependence on fossil fuels.
So hold aloft your beers and shout three cheers to dung-run cars and sipping turd-flavored vanilla lattes! Who knew those putrid patties would be useful for something other than Psilocybe mushrooms?
, a member-at-large of TheSequitur.com Editorial Board, earned his master’s degree in archaeological science from the University of Bradford (U.K.). His dissertation is entitled: “Analysis of faecal deposits from Pompeii, Italy: A new source of evidence for ancient diet and urban ecology.”
Progress 
How much waste are we talking about? Around 500,000 metric tons per year, he says. That’s a lot of shit for a small island nation!
