{{short description|Animal feces that has been dried in order to be used as a fuel source}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}} [[File:Stirling-Motor Kuhdung Hochhut 16082007.JPG|thumbnail|[[Stirling engine|Stirling-Motor]] powered with cow dung in the Technical Collection Hochhut in [[Frankfurt am Main]]]] '''Dry dung fuel''' (or '''dry manure fuel''') is [[feces]], generally of [[domestication|domestic]] animals, that have been dried in order to be [[combustion|burned]] as a fuel source. It is used in many countries, and in some instances employs [[Reuse of human excreta#Other uses|human feces]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://nypost.com/2023/01/13/i-burn-poop-to-save-money-it-makes-me-happy/ | title=I burn poop to save money -- it makes me happy | date=13 January 2023 }}</ref> Despite the disadvantage of [[Household air pollution|increasing air pollution]], the practice remains a common use of this kind of [[manure]].<ref name="MudwayDuggan2005">{{cite journal|last1=Mudway|first1=Ian S|last2=Duggan|first2=Sean T|last3=Venkataraman|first3=Chandra|last4=Habib|first4=Gazala|last5=Kelly|first5=Frank J|last6=Grigg|first6=Jonathan|title=Combustion of dried animal dung as biofuel results in the generation of highly redox active fine particulates| journal=Particle and Fibre Toxicology|volume=2|issue=1|year=2005|pages=6|issn=1743-8977|doi=10.1186/1743-8977-2-6|pmid=16202154|pmc=1262769 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2005PFTox...2....6M }}</ref>
== Types ==
===Dry dung and moist dung=== Dry dung is more commonly used than moist dung, because it burns more easily.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/this-country-makes-fuel-from-human-faeces-to-keep-home-fires-burning-1734687 | title=This Country Makes Fuel from Human Faeces to Keep Home Fires Burning }}</ref> Dry manure is typically defined as having a moisture content less than 30 percent.<ref>{{cite web|url = http://www.fs.fed.us/woodybiomass/documents/Yakima_County_Biomass_Report.pdf|title = Biomass Report, Yakima County Public Works Solid Waste Division|accessdate = 11 October 2012}}</ref>
=== Dung cakes === [[File:A Pile of Dung Cakes.JPG|thumb|A pile of dung cakes in the village [[Nihal Singh Wala]] of [[Moga district]] in [[Punjab, India|Punjab]]]] "Dung cakes", made from the by-products of [[animal husbandry]], are traditionally used as fuel in [[India]] for cooking food in a domestic [[hearth]] called a [[Chulha]]. They are made by hand by village women, traditionally of [[cow dung|cow]] or buffalo dung.One dung cake size of a hand gives around 2100 kJ of energy.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=I. |first1=Yerima |last2=Ngulde |first2=Y.M. |last3=Mustapha |first3=Abubakar |last4=Ngala |first4=A.L. |title=The Influence of Proximate Composition of Cow Dung on the Rate and Volume of Biogas Generation in Maiduguri, North Eastern Nigeria |journal=International Journal of Environment, Agriculture and Biotechnology |date=2019 |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=146–153 |doi=10.22161/ijeab/4.1.24|doi-access=free }}</ref> Dung cakes are also known as ''goitha'', ''uple'', ''kande'', ''gosse'' or ''thepdi''.
These cakes are molded with a curvature to keep them stuck to the walls. Once dried, they are put in a pile and covered with thatch called ''bitauda''. These bitaudas can be seen in parts of rural India, albeit with different names. The size and shape of the cake may vary with region. It is also not uncommon to see the cakes directly used in earthen ovens.
This biofuel has been used primarily for two reasons: for easy disposal of cow dung and as easily available and cheap fuel.
=== Human feces === [[Human feces]] can in principle also be dried and used as a fuel source if they are collected in a type of [[dry toilet]], for example an [[incinerating toilet]]. Since 2011, the [[Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation]] is supporting the development of such toilets as part of their "Reinvent the Toilet Challenge" to promote safer, more effective ways to treat human [[excreta]].<ref>Elisabeth von Muench, Dorothee Spuhler, Trevor Surridge, Nelson Ekane, Kim Andersson, Emine Goekce Fidan, Arno Rosemarin (2013) [http://www.susana.org/_resources/documents/default/2-2042-ssp-17okt20134-10-about-the-gates-sanitation-grants-on-forum.pdf Sustainable Sanitation Alliance members take a closer look at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s sanitation grants], Sustainable Sanitation Practice Journal, Issue 17, pp. 4–10</ref> The [[omniprocessor|omni-processor]] is another example of using human feces contained in [[Fecal sludge management|fecal sludge]] or [[sewage sludge]] as a fuel source.
==Attributes== [[File:Yavari (5690014405).jpg|thumbnail|The M.N. Yavari, of Peru built by Thames Iron Works, London in 1861-62 had a Watt steam engine powered by dried llama dung until 1914]] Advantages of using dry animal dung include:<ref>{{cite web |url=http://web.anl.gov/PCS/acsfuel/preprint%20archive/Files/47_2_Boston_10-02_0316.pdf |title=Pyrolysis Processing of Animal Manure to Produce Fuel Gases |accessdate=11 October 2012 |archive-date=3 December 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121203030237/http://web.anl.gov/PCS/acsfuel/preprint%20archive/Files/47_2_Boston_10-02_0316.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> *Potential for cost savings compared to other fuels, as no cash outlay is necessary for purchase *Availability *Ease of collection *Alleviation of local pressure on [[firewood|wood]] resources
==Countries== [[File:Tibet-5874 - Something smells here! (2212605065).jpg|thumbnail|Drying cow dung fuel]]
===Africa=== [[File:Egyptian women making dry animal dung fuel.jpg|thumbnail|Egyptian women making "Gella" dry animal dung fuel]] *In [[Egypt]] dry animal dung (from cows & buffaloes) is mixed with straw or crop residues to make dry fuel called "Gella" or "Jilla" dung cakes in modern times and ""khoroshtof"" in medieval times.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/32/97/46369/Folk/Street-Smart/Egyptian-cities-and-markets-Whats-behind-a-name-.aspx |title=Egyptian cities and markets: What's behind a name? - Street Smart - Folk - Ahram Online |publisher=English.ahram.org.eg |date=28 June 2012 |accessdate=11 October 2012}}</ref> Ancient Egyptians used the dry animal dung as a source of fuel.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/1999/413/chrncls.htm |title=Al-Ahram Weekly | Chronicles | |publisher=Weekly.ahram.org.eg |accessdate=11 October 2012 |url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111217021432/http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/1999/413/chrncls.htm |archivedate=17 December 2011 }}</ref> Dung cakes and building crop residues were the source of 76.4% of gross energy consumed in Egypt's rural areas during the 1980s.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.egyptchm.org/chm/implementation/pdf/tech_transfer/EL_S0291.pdf |title=Biogas Technology Transfer To Rural Communities in Egypt |accessdate=11 October 2012 |url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111123011949/http://www.egyptchm.org/chm/implementation/pdf/tech_transfer/EL_S0291.pdf |archivedate=23 November 2011 }}</ref> Temperatures of dung-fueled fires in an experiment on Egyptian village-made dung cake fuel were: ::"...a maximum of 640 °C in 12 minutes, falling to 240 °C after 25 minutes and 100 °C after 46 minutes. These temperatures were obtained without refueling and without bellows etc."<ref name="upenn1">{{cite web|url=http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~nmiller0/dung.html |title=Dung & Archeology |publisher=Sas.upenn.edu |accessdate=11 October 2012}}</ref> Also, camel dung is used as fuel in Egypt. * ''Lisu'' is the cakes of dry cow dung fuel in [[Lesotho]] (see photo) [[File:The National Archives UK - CO 1069-208-30.jpg|thumbnail|Huts in a village near Maseru, Lesotho. The fuel being used on the fire is dried cattle dung]] *[[Mali]]
===Asia=== [[File:Dung cooking fire. Pushkar India.JPG|thumbnail|Dung cooking fire. Pushkar India.]] *[[Afghanistan]], Tapi (تپی ) and used in villages and countrysides *[[Azerbaijan]], Кизяк (kizyak) is used as fuel in mountain villages, e.g. *[[Xinaliq]] [[File:PXL 20230318 111851638.jpg|thumb|кизяк (kizyak)]] *[[Bangladesh]], dry cow dung fuel is called Ghunte. *[[China]] *[[India]], dry [[Water buffalo|buffalo]] dung is used as fuel and it is sometimes a sacred practice to use cow dung fuel in some areas in India. Cow dung is known as "Gomaya" or "Komaya" in India. Dry animal dung cakes are called upla in Hindi.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.agriculturaits.czu.cz/pdf_files/vol_43_2_pdf/vankat.pdf |title=Animal Dung As A Source of Energy in Remote Areas of Indian Himalayas |accessdate=11 October 2012}}</ref>[[File:Dungcakes_at_Village_Bhraj,_Sangrur_District_04.jpg|thumb|Dungcakes at Village Bhraj, Sangrur District, Punjab]] *[[Iran]], Tapaleh (تاپاله )since prehistoric time to modern eras<ref name="academia1"/> *[[Iraq]], this kind of biofuel is named locally ''Muttal,'' and it is made in the shape of a disc made from cow or buffalo dung, with a diameter of 20–30 cm and a thickness of 2–5 cm. It is famous in its manufacture by the indigenous people of the marshes of Iraq in particular, and the residents of southern and Middle Euphrates of Iraq in general. It is used in the bakery of rice bread, and in grilling fish to form the favorite food of the people of the marshes, which is ''Tabag'' bread and grilled fish, and also is used to burn and emit smoke for a day or more to protect humans, animals and plants from harmful insects. It is stored in the form of heaps, called ''Gubbah'', and is usually mixed with hay in storage, and used in times when there is little fuel.<ref>{{Cite web |title=www.areq.net |url=https://areq.net/m/%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%B7%D8%A7%D9%84.html |access-date=10 March 2023 |website=عريق}}</ref> *[[Kazakhs]] dry animal dung is known as "Кизяк"<small> (romanized:</small> ''kizyak'') which is made by collecting dried animal dung on the steppe, wetting it in water then mixing it with straw then making it in discs which were then dried in the sun. It was used as a source of fuel for the winter and, throughout the summer.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.polishresettlementcampsintheuk.co.uk/stories/biegus.htm |title=Polish settlements in Russia during WW II |publisher=Polishresettlementcampsintheuk.co.uk |date=19 September 1936 |accessdate=11 October 2012}}</ref> *[[Kyrgyz Republic]], dung is used in specially designed home stoves, which vent to the outside *[[Mongolia]], dry cow dung and sheep dung cakes are commonly used as fuel. *[[Nepal]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://saneinetwork.net/Files/10_14___K_P_Pant.pdf |title=Health Costs of Dung-Cake Fuel Use by the Poor in Rural Nepal |accessdate=11 October 2012 |url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714153753/http://saneinetwork.net/Files/10_14___K_P_Pant.pdf |archivedate=14 July 2014 }}</ref> [[File:Defense.gov photo essay 120707-A-8536E-694.jpg|thumbnail|U.S. soldiers patrolling outside a qalat covered in caked and dried cow dung in an Afghan village]] [[File:Gauchar's Historical Field.jpg|thumbnail|Cow dung fuel was burnt on the [[Gochar|Gauchar's]] Historical Field, India to gauge the direction of air currents]] [[File:Komaya (cow dung).jpg|thumbnail|Making Komaya (cow dung fuel) in India]]
===Europe=== [[File:Brittanydung.jpg|thumbnail|Dung cakes being prepared for fuel on the [[Ile de Brehat]], [[Brittany]], France, {{c.}} 1900]] * [[France]]: in Maison du Marais in [[Coulon, Deux-Sèvres|Coulon]] ([[Poitou-Charentes]]) there is a demonstration of traditional usage of dry dung fuel.
===The Americas=== *Early European settlers on the Great Plains of the United States used dried buffalo manure as a fuel, calling it "buffalo chips." * [[Pueblo Indians]] used dry animal dung as a fuel * In [[Peru]], the [[Yavari (ship)|Yavari]] steam ship was fueled by llama dung fuel for several decades. * Dry dung can be used in the production of [[celluloid]] for film.{{citation needed|date=October 2025}}
==History== Dry animal dung was used from prehistoric times,<ref name="Mlekuž2009">{{cite journal|last1=Mlekuž|first1=Dimitrij|title=The materiality of dung: the manipulation of dung in Neolithic Mediterranean caves|journal=Documenta Praehistorica|volume=36|year=2009|pages=219–225|issn=1854-2492|doi=10.4312/dp.36.14|doi-access=free}}</ref> including in Ancient Persia,<ref name="academia1">{{cite journal|last=Miller |first=Naomi |url=https://www.academia.edu/1163075 |title=The use of dung as fuel: an ethnographic example and an archaeological application | Naomi Miller |journal=Paléorient |volume=10 |issue=2 |pages=71–79 |publisher=Academia.edu |date=1 January 1984 |accessdate=11 October 2012|doi=10.3406/paleo.1984.941 }}</ref> Ancient Egypt and early modern England.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Fiennes|first=Celia|url=https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/travellers/Fiennes/20|title=Through England on a Side Saddle in the Time of William and Mary|publisher=Field & Tuer, The Leadenhall Press, E.C.|year=1888 |orig-date=1702|editor-last=Griffiths}}</ref> In [[Equatorial Guinea]] archaeological evidence has been found of the practice,<ref name="Picornell GelabertAsouti2011">{{cite journal|last1=Picornell Gelabert|first1=Llorenç|last2=Asouti|first2=Eleni|last3=Martí|first3=Ethel Allué|title=The ethnoarchaeology of firewood management in the Fang villages of Equatorial Guinea, central Africa: Implications for the interpretation of wood fuel remains from archaeological sites|journal=Journal of Anthropological Archaeology|volume=30|issue=3|year=2011|pages=375–384|issn=0278-4165|doi=10.1016/j.jaa.2011.05.002}}</ref> and biblical records indicate animal and human dung were used as fuel.<ref>The Bible Ezekiel 4:12 And you shall eat it as barley cakes, and you shall bake it with dung that comes out of man. http://bibleapps.com/ezekiel/4-12.htm</ref>
== Air pollution == [[File:Smouldering cow dung cake sample.jpg|thumb|The burning of cow dung cake releases a range of organic and inorganic gases in both gas and particle phases]] [[File:Volatility distribution of organic emissions from dried cow dung cake combustion.jpg|thumb|The burning of cow dung cake releases organic air pollutants over a wide range of volatilities into both gas and particle phases.]] The [[combustion]] of dried dung cakes has been shown to release many thousands of [[Organic chemistry|organic]] components into gas and aerosol phases, some of which are unique tracers of dung combustion, such as [[cholestanol]] and [[coprostanol]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Stewart|first1=Gareth J.|last2=Nelson|first2=Beth S.|last3=Acton|first3=W. Joe F.|last4=Vaughan|first4=Adam R.|last5=Farren|first5=Naomi J.|last6=Hopkins|first6=James R.|last7=Ward|first7=Martyn W.|last8=Swift|first8=Stefan J.|last9=Arya|first9=Rahul|last10=Mondal|first10=Arnab|last11=Jangirh|first11=Ritu|date=2021-02-18|title=Emissions of intermediate-volatility and semi-volatile organic compounds from domestic fuels used in Delhi, India|url=https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/21/2407/2021/|journal=Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics|language=English|volume=21|issue=4|pages=2407–2426|doi=10.5194/acp-21-2407-2021|bibcode=2021ACP....21.2407S |issn=1680-7316|doi-access=free}}</ref> Dung cakes are generally a higher emission [[fuel]], with the combustion of cow dung cake samples collected from the [[Delhi]] area of India releasing around four times more [[volatile organic compound]]s than fuel [[wood]] samples.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Stewart|first1=Gareth J.|last2=Acton|first2=W. Joe F.|last3=Nelson|first3=Beth S.|last4=Vaughan|first4=Adam R.|last5=Hopkins|first5=James R.|last6=Arya|first6=Rahul|last7=Mondal|first7=Arnab|last8=Jangirh|first8=Ritu|last9=Ahlawat|first9=Sakshi|last10=Yadav|first10=Lokesh|last11=Sharma|first11=Sudhir K.|date=2021-02-18|title=Emissions of non-methane volatile organic compounds from combustion of domestic fuels in Delhi, India|url=https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/21/2383/2021/|journal=Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics|language=English|volume=21|issue=4|pages=2383–2406|doi=10.5194/acp-21-2383-2021|bibcode=2021ACP....21.2383S |issn=1680-7316|doi-access=free}}</ref>
The [[volatile organic compounds]] released from [[Cattle|cow]] dung cake combustion have been shown to be significantly more reactive with the [[hydroxyl radical]], with the [[gas]]es released from the combustion of cow dung cake samples collected from Delhi in India around 120 times more reactive with the hydroxyl radical than the emissions from [[liquefied petroleum gas]]. The volatile organic compounds from [[cow]] dung cake combustion have also been shown to result in 3-4 times more [[secondary organic aerosol]] production than fuel wood and release many more toxic [[polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Stewart|first1=Gareth J.|last2=Nelson|first2=Beth S.|last3=Acton|first3=W. Joe F.|last4=Vaughan|first4=Adam R.|last5=Hopkins|first5=James R.|last6=Yunus|first6=Siti S. M.|last7=Hewitt|first7=C. Nicholas|last8=Nemitz|first8=Eiko|last9=Mandal|first9=Tuhin K.|last10=Gadi|first10=Ranu|last11=Sahu|first11=Lokesh K.|date=2021-02-25|title=Comprehensive organic emission profiles, secondary organic aerosol production potential, and OH reactivity of domestic fuel combustion in Delhi, India|journal=Environmental Science: Atmospheres|language=en|volume=1|issue=2|pages=104–117|doi=10.1039/D0EA00009D|issn=2634-3606|doi-access=free|bibcode=2021ESAt....1..104S }}</ref>
==See also==
*[[Improved cookstove|Cook stove]]
==References== {{Commons category|Dry animal dung fuel}}
{{reflist}}
==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20121116024344/http://www.careforcows.org/news/preparing_cow_dung_for_fuel Preparing Cow Dung For Fuel]
[[Category:Feces]] [[Category:Biodegradable waste management]] [[Category:Bioenergy]] [[Category:Biofuels]] [[Category:Fuels]] [[Category:Biomass]]