methane

I have a dog. I'm a responsible dog owner; on a walk, after he does his business, I take care of it. The bag of waste is thrown into an always-open dumpster on the walk back to my apartment building.

But what if the contents of that bag could be used to power a park lamp? Indeed, the park where I and many of my neighbors walk our dogs has a single lamppost. And if an experiment by conceptual artist Matthew Mazzotta continues to be successful, my dog's doo might power it one day.

Mazzotta has a pilot project going in Cambridge, Mass., … Read more

FuelCell Energy this week announced two deals through which its electricity-producing fuel cells will be powered by biogas from chicken waste and sewage.

The company, a competitor to the much-hyped Bloom Energy, has been making fuel cells for years aimed at commercial customers. The fuel cells produce electricity from different fuels, including methane made from organic material.

On Thursday, the Danbury, Conn.-based company said that it sold two 300-kilowatt machines to Eastern Municipal Water District for use at a wastewater facility in Riverside County, Calif.

There, an anaerobic digester, using microorganisms and heat, will break down biosolids into methane … Read more

Adobe launched its Flash player for the Android 10.1 operating system back in June, and now Apple is getting the same treatment, but under the table. The same hacker group that released the Web site jailbreakme.com has released an early version of Flash for jailbroken iPhones.

The program is called Frash (pause for Jeff to laugh), and at the moment it can only handle Web sites with basic Flash animations, so don't expect to watch streaming videos from sites such as YouTube or Vimeo just yet. Keep in mind that jailbreaking your iPhone does make it vulnerable to a certain security exploit revealed last week. Of course, Apple is planning to patch the issue, so you may want to hold off on updating apps like Frash until then.

You've probably heard of cars that run on vegetable oil, but what about a vehicle that runs on methane gas extracted from human waste? Engineers at GENeco are testing a Volkswagen Beetle, aka "Dung Beetle," that uses methane harvested from bacteria stored in sewage decomposition containers.

The thought of a fart-powered car might tickle your gag reflex, but there's no denying its energy efficiency. Our own Rory Reid on Crave U.K. said the waste from 70 homes can create enough gas to run the Dung Beetle for 10,000 miles, and it's also carbon neutral since all of it normally is released into the atmosphere when the sewage converts to methane.

Join us in the second half of the show where we'll discuss yesterday's epic Classic Tetris World Championship in Los Angeles. More than 200 players competed in the Championship organized by former Nintendo World Champion player Robin Mihara, but only Jonas Neubauer was able to beat the other eight players in the semi-finals and win the trophy and $1,000 prize.

We asked for TerrorByte lyrics over the weekend and you guys certainly delivered! Check out today's submission from Mark after the break, and don't forget to send yours to the404(at)cnet(dot)com! If you just want to leave a comment about the show, feel free to give us a ring at 1-866-404-CNET or BBM our phone at 2482F452; we'll be waiting!… Read more

We've seen cars powered by some crazy things in the past. electricity, chip fat, water, air, hydrogen--as of today, you can add farts to that list.

Engineers from Geneco, a sustainable-energy company owned by Wessex Water, have unveiled a modified Volkswagen Beetle that runs on compressed methane gas extracted from human waste. A Dung Beetle, if you will.

Biogas is generated when filth from Wessex Water's sewage works is put into a decomposition container, where oxygen-starved bacteria break it down to produce methane. The methane is then harvested and placed in tanks inside the boot of the … Read more

On today's show, a special interview with Adam Sadowsky, president of Syynlabs, the OK Go video, "This Too Shall Pass." Turns out making that video was as hard to make as you might imagine. Also, we discuss the pending smellpocalypse coming out of Siberia.

Interview with Adam Sadowsky, president, Syynlabs OK Go – This Too Shall Pass – RGM version http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w

iPad coming on April 3, preorders on March 12 http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10464361-37.html… Read more

The renewable energy industry hits the fan Tuesday in California.

Pacific Gas & Electric and BioEnergy Solutions plans to open a pipeline Tuesday that will deliver methane to the utility from a manure-to-gas facility at a Fresno-area farm. Some farms in California, such as cheese maker Joseph Gallo Farms, and a number in Europe already generate gas from manure, but they also consume it to run their operations. This marks the first time that manure-generated gas will get sold across pipelines in the state.

BioEnergy Solutions owns and operates the digester (the thing that converts the manure into gas), which … Read more