Baylor professor turning cow manure into fuel-grade ethanol

Waco Tribune-Herald (Texas)
By J.B. Smith Tribune-Herald staff writer
Friday, December 18, 2009

To critics who object to making ethanol fuel out of grain, Larry Lehr, of Waco, has an ecology-minded answer: Run it through a cow first.

Lehr, who teaches environmental science at Baylor University, is planning to build a manure-to-ethanol demonstration plant at a model dairy that Tarleton State University is building in Stephenville.

Lehr and his Waco business partner, Norm Burgess, have already used a $250,000 Texas Emerging Technology grant for research into converting animal waste into fuel-grade ethanol. Now their firm, called Environmental Quality Management Associates, is applying for another $750,000 to build the demonstration plant in Stephenville next year.

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