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Feb 23, 2000 - 10:41 AM

Thai Researchers Turn Elephant's Excrement Into Energy

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - Thai researchers say they have succeeded in generating electricity from natural gas derived from elephant dung.

A spokeswoman from the Ministry of Science's Bureau of Energy Development and Promotion said Wednesday that a project begun in August last year has been developing ways of using elephant excrement as a low-cost and environmental friendly source of energy.

The researchers found that when the excrement is fermented, it can produce natural gas suitable for use as cooking gas or feedstock for am electric generator.

An elephant produces 88 to 110 pounds of excrement a day - enough to produce cooking gas for a family of two or three, according to the ministry.

But the cost is not cheap.

The minimum price of construction of a fermentation pit, pipeline and storage tank is around $800 and a generator that could use the gas costs around $2,667.

The ministry plans to release a report in the next two or three months promoting use of the project's method nationwide, especially in the North and the Northeast where most of the country's domesticated elephants are found and the problem of how to dispose of the elephants' waste is most acute.

-- Anonymous, February 23, 2000

Answers

That's priceless!

Not too many elephants in the US of A.

Fascinating what can be converted into energy.

Thanks.

Diane

-- Anonymous, February 23, 2000