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Tag: Methane

  • Whale Carcass Feared Ready to Explode

    Whale Carcass Feared Ready to Explode

    Residents of Trout River in Newfoundland, Canada fear that a blue whale carcass that washed ashore last week may be ready to explode. The stinky, 82-foot-long cetacean has been expanding due to a buildup of various gasses, and might go by the way of a putrefied sperm whale that exploded in the Faroe Islands last November.

    Emily Butler, Trout River town manager, commented, “The whale is blowing up. It looks as if it’s a big balloon, from a distance. There is a possibility as well, with all these gases inside the whale, that it may possibly explode…That’s a major concern for us.”

    Trout River, pop. 600, had asked for a hand in removing the carcass from provincial and federal government agencies, but were told that they have to deal with the whale themselves. Butler added, “I wouldn’t want to direct anybody to actually remove this animal you know, under the town’s responsibility because we don’t have the expertise to do such a thing. I’m also hearing that DFO (Department of Fisheries and Oceans) would seem to take this as being an interference with navigation if it’s taken back out to the ocean.”

    The blue whale is the largest known animal to have ever existed, sometimes reaching 100 feet in length. and weighing almost 200 tons. Trout River residents are already complaining of the stench of the whale, which would be compounded if it blew up. Though, it would appear that some sort of gaseous release will occur regardless of how the situation is handled.

    During the putrefaction process of a dead animal, various gasses begin to build up within the abdominal cavity of the carcass, specifically methane, sometimes resulting in animal explosions. These foul forces of nature are rare, though not unprecedented. Here is a clip of the Faroe Islands explosion:

    It is not yet clear how Trout River plans to dispose of their whale, and Butler said, “We’re really concerned about the smell from this. We are also concerned with the health aspect of this animal being on the beach line.”

    Image via YouTube

  • Argentina Drawing Natural Gas from Cow Burps

    Argentine researchers have found a way to transform the gas created by cow digestive systems into fuel, a development that could also reduce some of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming.

    Argentina’s National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA) has developed a technique that channels cow gas from bovine stomach cavities, using an experimental system of valves and pumps.

    The eruptos, as these burps are known as in Spanish, are then pushed through a tube into a tank, where the valuable methane is separated from other gasses, including carbon dioxide. Methane is the primary component of natural gas, which is used to fuel anything from automobiles to gas turbines. And we sure as heck ain’t going to get it from Mars.

    Guillermo Berra, head of INTA’s animal physiology group, said “Once you get it compressed, it’s the same as having natural gas. As an energy source it is not very practical at the moment, but if you look ahead to 2050, when fossil fuel reserves are going to be in trouble, it is an alternative.”

    Cows were first brought to Argentina in 1536 by Spanish Conquistadors. Due to the geography of the Pampas, or the fertile lowlands of South America, and a small national market, the cattle multiplied rapidly. Argentina currently has about 52 million head of cattle, and is the world’s second largest consumer of beef.

    Each cow gives off about 250-300 liters of methane a day. This can be converted to enough energy to run a refrigerator for 24 hours. Seems negligible, but these combined eruptos account for 30% of Argentina’s total greenhouse gas emissions. Also, methane is 23 times worse than carbon dioxide, regarding global warming.

    Cows have been good to Argentina, which is still one of the world’s top beef exporters. Argentine carne de res and its production have played a major part in the Culture of Argentina, with revenues contributing to politics, philanthropy and society. The new cow burp harvesting system might come to usher in a new era of bovine bank.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons.

  • Mars Has No Methane, Reports Curiosity Rover

    Mars Has No Methane, Reports Curiosity Rover

    Based on recent reports sent back by the Curiosity rover on Mars, scientists have come to the conclusion that Mars most certainly does not have any martian cows, or any other organic organisms for that matter.

    The Curiosity rover landed on Mars in October of 2012, and from then until June made 6 different analyses of the atmosphere. The goal was to hopefully find the presence of methane. On Earth, methane is produced by almost all living organisms. (Especially cows, hence the earlier lame attempt at a joke.) Thus, if Curiosity would have found presence of methane on Mars, proof of life existing on Mars would have almost undeniable.

    Scientists were looking for methane due to earlier reports from observations here on Earth in 2003 that there were huge plumes of the gas in Mars’s atmosphere. When building Curiosity, scientists made sure to equip it with the best methane detector available to man – the Tunable Laser Spectrometer (TLS). This device can search for methane through 2 different means: One laser looks exclusively for the spectral lines of methane, and the other can detect methane, water, carbon, and oxygen. Because of the sophistication of the equipment, scientists are 95% sure that there are no methane producing organisms on the planet.

    Despite those overwhelming statistics, the findings do not completely dissolve hope for life on Mars. While scientists still have no real answers for the discrepancies between the methane readings from Earth and the ones made by the Curiosity rover, they are still holding out hope for life on the red planet: “If it had found methane, that would have been killer. Yes, it’s disappointing in that we didn’t get a pony for Christmas. But it doesn’t mean there aren’t ponies out there,” stated Dr. Zurbin, president of the nonprofit Mars Society. (But once again, we definitely know there are no cows.)

    Even Curiosity herself (Are rovers called girls like cars?) has not given up hope for life on Mars:

    So where to search next? Considering scientists have had no luck searching the surface of the planet for life-forms, the next stop seems to be underground. All evidence points to the fact that Mars was once a hot and wet planet (Now would be the time for an inappropriate joke about red-heads, but I’ll let that one slide). If there is no water on the surface, odds are that there is some below the surface. Also, the equipment Curiosity has to measure methane levels is about the best money can buy, but that doesn’t mean it is perfect. The readings could be wrong. And if they are, there is still hope for Martian cows.

    Image via Twitter

  • Hog Manure Causing Mysterious Methane Explosions

    Researchers are at a loss for what might be causing hog manure to suddenly become explosive. Six hog farms have exploded since 2009. University of Minnesota’s Agricultural Engineer Charles Clanton says, “This has all started in the last four or five years here. We don’t have any idea where it came from or how it got started. Whatever has happened is new.” The farms have blown up because a spark has somehow ignited methane that has become trapped in some sort of unidentified form of foam that has been developing in manure pits.

    (image)@billspaniel
    Bill Spaniel, ABC    Pig farmers would be wise to have well-ventilated barns; otherwise, they may go boom! http://t.co/dQ19pqzG http://t.co/OqAb9ZRC(image) 10 minutes ago via TweetDeck ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    These hog manure pits have always been emptied regularly. Believe it or not, the waste generally builds up and acts just like a giant stomach. These waste pits become caldrons in which single-celled organisms and bacteria metabolize the muck, which creates the methane. Big fans are typically used to keep the methane from reach any explosive levels. The new foam that is being found is trapping the methane in its bubbles. Amazingly, this foam can reach a depth of four feet or more.

    When these bubbles are disturbed, large amounts of methane are released in a very short period of time. All it takes it a little spark and the barn where these pits are housed becomes a bomb and can explode. Researchers are stumped as far as what is causing the foam to be created. There are several theories. It could be caused from new bacterial communities or an actual change to the molecular structure of hog manure caused by new kinds of feed. There has been a dramatic rise in the United States in the use of distiller’s grain in hog food and there is evidence that shows it may be linked to this foam.

    There is also the possibility that it may come from soaps used to clean the pits. Scientists have observed that it is seemingly random in regard to which farms have it and which do not. Also, once the foam is formed it keeps coming back. The foam seems to be located in a limited area so far that includes Northern Iowa, Southern Minnesota, Illinois and Wisconsin. Angela Kent, a University of Illinois Microbial Ecologist says, “I don’t think it’s a dangerous new microbe. I think it’s a shift in the environment that’s favoring a particular microbial assemblage that’s inadvertently causing this.”

    In September of 2011, a spark caused from a typical metal repair on a farm caused an accidental explosion on an Iowa hog farm that injured a farm worker and killed 1,500 hogs.

    (image)@SMGHogan
    Patrick Hogan    Apparently pig farms have bee exploding because of a mysterious foam popping up (or out, rather) in pig manure. http://t.co/Fnm8Zir8(image) 1 hour ago via TweetDeck ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    (image)@eur_1965
    Eur van Andel    The mystery of exploding pig shit deepens. It’s the foam that holds the methane, but what causes the foam? Why now? http://t.co/2f41qpMn(image) 1 day ago via Safari on iOS ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto