StateImpact explains how the Pennsylvania Farm Show's famous butter sculpture faced a future of being dumped into a manure pit, converted to methane gas and generating electricity for a farm north of Harrisburg.
Turns out, butter becomes gas through the work of a methane digester. Glenn Cauffman, the manager of Penn State University's Farm Operations, said the butter will be dumped into a big heated tank where microorganisms will feast on it. "Those microorganisms can break those fat molecules apart into the less complex molecules," he explained. "Then further take that to produce a gas called methane, which burns readily in an engine, and can be converted into electricity."
As long as the farmer keeps the digester hot, the bacteria will do all the work. "Those organisms at a hundred degrees, are working hard," said Cauffman. "They’re trying to live. They’re trying to reproduce. They’re trying to eat food, be happy, make more bacterial."
Original source: StateImpact
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