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Energy: South Dakota facility turns cattle manure into local energy

BROOKINGS — A new facility sending renewable natural gas made from dairy cattle manure to local energy customers could be the first of several such plants, a utility company said Monday while celebrating Earth Day.

Natural gas is mostly methane. It’s typically extracted by fracking and drilling into shale formations, and used to heat homes or to fuel power plants that generate electricity.

Turning dairy cow waste into pipeline-grade natural gas begins with collecting manure. The manure is transported to the dairies’ on-site tanks where the absence of oxygen facilitates the breakdown of the waste by microbes. | READ MORE