Cow poo is not to be sniffed at. It could be used to generate enough electricity to meet up to 3 percent of North America’s entire consumption needs, significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions, according to new research.

Through anaerobic digestion manure can be turned into energy-rich biogas, which standard microturbines can use to produce electricity. The hundreds of millions of livestock in the United States could produce about 100-billion kilowatt hours of electricity, enough to power millions of homes and offices, says the research.

Left to decompose naturally, manure emits two particularly potent greenhouse gases – nitrous oxide and methane. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, nitrous oxide warms the atmosphere 310 times more than carbon dioxide, methane does so 21 times more.

Source: Science Daily