Landscape Architect & Specifier News

MAR 2018

LASN is a photographically oriented, professional journal featuring topics of concern and state-of-the-art projects designed or influenced by registered Landscape Architects.

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120 Landscape Architect and Specifier News I n f o r m a t i o n R e q u e s t # 6 2 0 I n f o r m a t i o n R e q u e s t # 6 2 8 I n f o r m a t i o n R e q u e s t # 5 1 3 Electrifying Dog Poop Worcestershire, England resident Brian Harper, 66, has developed over the last three years a use for dog poop in his little corner of the world. Dog walkers along one sidewalk in Malvern Hills, UK, can now deposit their dogs' feces into handy supplied poop scoop bags, then deposit the bags into his special sidewalk bin. The depositor then cranks the bin's handle a few times to move it into the "digester," where it is heated and broken down by microorganisms to produce methane and carbon dioxide, which is stored in canisters to power a street lamp. The lamp ignites the methane supply. About 10 bags of poop powers the street light for two hours. Animal dung and other decaying organic matter have been used since the 1600s to produce methane, a flammable gas. Today, anaerobic digesters are commonplace in many developing countries. Much of the energy from the dog excrement is lost, so it's not what you'd call an efficient fuel, still, it perhaps is just the kind of intriguing usage that might prompt people to actually bag their canines' sidewalk or park deposits. Waterloo, Ontario is currently collecting pet poop of dog walkers at three city parks. The concrete storage bins are emptied by trucks and taken to a plant where it is broken down along with other organic waste to produce methane, which in turn is converted to electricity. The byproduct of this process is sold to farmers as fertilizer.

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