Researchers from HP Labs recently presented to the ASME International Conference on Energy Sustainability their paper stating that the manure output of cows and the heat output of data centers can combine to create an economically and environmentally sustainable operation.
The 8-page paper authored by Ratnesh Sharma, Tom Christian, Martin Arlitt, Cullen Bash and Chandrakant Patel describes how a 10,000-cow dairy farm could fulfill the power requirements of a 1-MW data center, with power left over to support other needs on the farm.
"In this process," HP Labs said when making the paper public, "the heat generated by the data center can be used to increase the efficiency of the anaerobic digestion of animal waste. This results in the production of methane, which can be used to generate power for the data center. This symbiotic relationship allows the waste problems faced by dairy farms and the energy demands of the modern data center to be addressed in a sustainable manner."
Patel, director of the Sustainable IT Ecosystem Lab at HP Labs, explains the concept in this YouTube video.
Christian, who is principal research scientist in the Sustainable IT Ecosystem Lab, adds, "The idea of using animal waste to generate energy has been around for centuries, with manure being used every day in remote villages to generate heat for cooking. The new idea that we are presenting in this research is to create a symbiotic relationship between farms and the IT ecosystem that can benefit the farm, the data center and the environment."
Some other notable quotes taken directly from the paper:
-The average dairy cow produces 54.7 kilograms of manure per day, approximately 20 metric tons per year.
-The manure produced by one dairy cow in one day can generate 3.0 kWh of electrical energy.
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