permaculture

[Mark Ludwig <mpludwig@facstaff.wisc.edu>]

> The methane tanks as described in other posts worked well in India when I
> was there.  It cooked our meals and digested the cattle's dung. A few years
> later I learned there was one catch.  They tended to explode sending the
> steel tank flying into the air and come earth and break after several years
> of very useful service. That is because people liked to smoke, could not
> read, and no posted signs anyway.  It is a technology that needs care and
> understanding: Walls, Fences, Safety equipment, signs, to a "code" etc. They
> had none of that in India with the expected results.
>
> Harold Waldock
> Vancouver Permaculture Network

Perhaps this is one of those engineering challenges that calls for new 
materials.  Here in the midwest we see lots of plastic tanks produced for 
agricultural use, wouldn't be so hard to make cooking gas type units of 
nested cylinders that wouldn't degrade (if kept out of the sun) and could 
have engineered in thin spots or plugs to keep any blow out from becoming a 
ballistic missile.   We are seeing several bladder type units being 
developed on large farms and attached to micro turbines for electricity 
generation.  This is the only bright side to large scale confinement type 
dairies IMO.
Mark Ludwig