Harvesting manure for biofuel

According to an article in Environmental News Network, the world's largest biomass power plant is located in the Netherlands. It runs on chicken manure and provides power for 90,000 homes.

The power plant has a 36.5 MW capacity and generates approximately 270 million kWh of electricity annually. It uses the carbon dioxide and methane gasses produced by the manure to produce power.


Not only does this method of power production spare the carbon cost of traditional power sources (coal, oil, etc), but it prevents the methane and CO2 in the manure from escaping into the atmosphere.

The power plant will use about 440,000 tons of chicken manure per year, which is about one third of the total yearly amount produced in the Netherlands.