From: SFPhysics@aol.com
Date: Thu Nov 30 2000 - 01:31:30 PST
From: SFPhysics@aol.com Message-ID: <69.da9ea3c.27577872@aol.com> Date: Thu, 30 Nov 2000 04:31:30 EST Subject: Biomass Methane/was flamming flatulence
You can indeed ignite methane gas from flatulence which has high
concentrations of the gas. Doctors in operating rooms doing some forms of
bowel surgery take precautions against static electric discharge. There is
even the case of one man who accidentally killed himself with his own
flatulence in a tiny very tightly closed room he was living in. The firemen
going in had to open the windows and doors to lower the concentration until
the danger of explosion was gone. The man's own methane displaced the air
and he suffocated. Blue flamers are possible. Now how true the jet
propelled gerbil story is, I don't know, but it is funny.
One of the sources of energy for an energy strapped planet can be the burning
of methane with yields carbon dioxide and water vapor. Biomass digesters
could easily be a renewable energy source. The flame is reasonably hot and
is sufficient to give both energy for heating and for electricity production
by gas turbine. In fact the proposed natural gas electric generation plant
that is in the news in San Jose would use methane only.
Al Sefl
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