Gas from Cow Dung?

Japanese researchers in an effort to find sources of domestic gasoline have invented a process to extract gasoline from cow dung:

Sakae Shibusawa, an agriculture engineering professor at the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, said his team has successfully extracted .042 ounces of gasoline from every 3.5 ounces of cow dung by applying high pressure and heat.

“The new technology will be a boon for livestock breeders” to reduce the burden of disposing of large amounts of waste, Shibusawa said.

Gasoline is not the only thing scientists have been able to extract from cow dung:

In a separate experiment revealing another unusual business potential for cow dung, another group of researchers has successfully extracted an aromatic ingredient of vanilla from cattle dung, said Miki Tsuruta, a Sekisui Chemical Co. spokeswoman. The extracted ingredient, vanillin, can be used as fragrance in shampoo and candles, she said.

Some how I don’t think cow dung shampoo is going to go over to well, but in Japan weirder things have happened.