Why a Biochemist Gets Excited about Pig Power

If the human family manages to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels someday, we'll probably have to thank millions of Chinese pigs and scientist Ouyang Pingkai. Ouyang is a respected biochemist at Nanjing University of Technology who helped develop a simple method for converting barnyard manure into methane gas. According to the university's press department, he's now asking the Chinese government to promote the technique on a nationwide scale.

It's quite simple. Fecal waste from pigs and other farm animals is mixed with bacteria and crop residue, such as stalks and straw, in an underground pit. Bacteria break down the waste, creating burnable methane gas which is then piped into nearby farm homes and barns for stoves, lights, heaters and the like.

Ouyang is understandably excited about the results of his findings, which focused on detecting the right bacteria for the job. He worked alongside researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and won support from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He crows about the huge biomass energy potential waiting to be tapped on Chinese farms, which collectively support 40 percent of world's domesticated fowl and more than half the planet's pigs.

If all that animal waste were converted to methane, Ouyang argues, the world's coal use could be reduced by about 700 million tons a year. Water pollution from farm runoff would be reduced as well.

The development of this methane-making technique could have as great an impact as the discovery of the Daqing oil field 50 years ago in northeast China, Ouyang says. And with less environmental impact, since the technique makes manure-based fertilizer as well as methane. He calls this new process China's road to a "green Daqing." Now, let's see if this biochemist's enthusiasm for power from pig waste catches fire.