Methane is the most abundant organic chemical in the
earth's atmosphere. Its abundance in the atmosphere is
increasing with time and has reached levels not seen in recent
geological history. The methane is produced both naturally, and
anthropogenically. One of the sources of anthropogenic methane
is manure from domesticated animals. Casada and Safley (1990)
estimated the amount of methane generated from this source.
This was done by estimating the Methane Conversion Factor
(MCF) typically achieved by various waste management systems.
This study was done to evaluate those estimates of the MCF. The
MCF's for the most dominant of disposal methods,
rangeland/pasture disposal, were much lower than the earlier
estimates. Other waste management systems, such as solid
storage and liquid slurry storage had much higher MCF's, at 20°
and 30° C. However, these waste management methods are more
prevalent in parts of the world where the average annual
temperature is closer to 10° C. At that temperature, the MCF is
negligible in all waste management systems. This study showed
that the previously reported estimates of MCF for some waste
management systems were higher than what was actually the
case. Consequently earlier estimates of the amount of methane
generated from manures were higher than what this study found. / Graduation date: 1994
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/36620 |
| Date | 09 September 1993 |
| Creators | Steed, John Arthur |
| Contributors | Hashimoto, Andrew G. |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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