Did you know one cow can produce 10,000 gallons of manure each year?
Now do the math: A large farm with a thousand cows means about 10 million gallons of manure every year.
Now, thanks to research from Michigan State University, that cow poo could become the source of, believe it or not, clean water.
Steve Safferman is an associate professor of biosystems and agricultural engineering at Michigan State University.
Safferman says 90 to 95% of cow manure is water.
There is a multi-step process used to retrieve the water. First the manure goes through pretreatment, then filtration, air stripping, and reverse osmosis.
Research shows that from 100 gallons of cow manure, 50 gallons of water can be retrieved.
The water is just like fresh water that comes out of the faucet. This water even has higher quality of drinking for the cows than well water.
Within a year of commercializing, there has been a lot of interest from farmers who are interested in the water-extraction system.
Safferman said the system could be very useful for farmers who may have to sell their livestock because there is not enough water. It could also cut their water use potentially in half.
*Listen to full interview above.
Copyright 2021 Michigan Radio. To see more, visit Michigan Radio. 9(MDEyMzg0OTk0MDEzODE1MjM2ODE2ODgyMg004))