Does dung hold the answer to easing fuel dependence?

COULD Ireland’s herd of 6.53 million cattle provide the solution to the country’s over-dependence on fuel imports? The question has arisen after reports from the US suggested that the secret to cheaper gas in that country could lie in cow dung.

Experts at the Vehicle Research Institute of Western Washington University have been turning cow manure into fuel that can power a natural-gas car.

Researchers are not shoveling manure straight into the tank but pumping the methane — a gas created by the manure — into the vehicle.