Japanese Company Turns Noodles Into Electricity

[Steven Bogos]

Japanese Company Turns Noodles Into Electricity

The Chiyoda Manufacturing Corporation says a single tank of leftover noodles can generate enough power for fifty households.

Udon is a kind of Japanese wheat noodle that is popular throughout the country, particularly in the Shikoku area. The Chiyoda Manufacturing Corporation, based out of Kagawa Prefecture in Shokoku, has taken the country's love of udon to the next level - by developing a new kind of udon-to-methane electricity generator that promises to provide all of an average household's electricity needs using nothing but leftover noodles.

The industrial machinery manufacturer has announced that, starting in September, it will begin production of electricity through the use of methane gas harvested from fermented udon. The company plans to collect leftover noodles and pack them into a large 26 feet by 26 feet tank.

Chiyoda believes that it will be able to generate enough methane gas to power the turbines all day and all night. It claims that this should in turn, generate 180,000 kilowatt-hours of power a year - enough to power 50 average households!

Chiyoda is getting these leftover noodles from what the excess of another of its udon-based projects - ethanol production using udon remains from a local noodle company. The company will supplement the noodles by collecting food waste from restaurants.

Currently, there is just the one magic noodles-to-electricity tank, but if it proves to be successful, Chiyoda is aiming to start taking orders by the end of the year.

Among all the confusion an fear surrounding nuclear power, and the devastating environmental effects of fossil fuels, could noodle power be the answer we are all looking for?

Source: Rocket News 24 [http://www.shikoku-np.co.jp/kagawa_news/economy/20130731000122]





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[McGuinty1]

Now that's using your (leftover) noodle!

 

[CardinalPiggles]

Now that's gonna smell real bad. I'd hate to be the one to open the container after a cycle.

 

[Saucycarpdog]

It seems like anything these days can be turned into energy.

 

[lacktheknack]

Udon is a kind of Japanese wheat noodle that is popular throughout the country, particularly in the Shikoku area. The Chiyoda Manufacturing Corporation, based out of Kagawa Prefecture in Shokoku, has taken the country's love of udon to the next level - by developing a new kind of udon-to-methane electricity generator that promises to provide all of an average household's electricity needs using nothing but leftover noodles.

The Chiyoda Manufacturing Corporation, based out of Kagawa Prefecture in Shokoku, has taken the country's love of udon to the next level - by developing a new kind of udon-to-methane electricity generator that promises to provide all of an average household's electricity needs using nothing but leftover noodles.

a new kind of udon-to-methane electricity generator

udon-to-methane

udon-to-methane

<img width=220>http://i3.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/290/243/646.jpg

Beyond that, this sounds like a fantastic idea. I hope it turns out. I'll even contribute, as I'm not sure I want to eat my udon noodles any mroe if they can generate that much methane.

 

[Roxor]

Good to hear about yet another way of making the most of what would otherwise go to waste.

 

[Quantum Glass]

Japan: Combining world changing technological innovation with guano craziness since 1975.

 

[Thaluikhain]

and there i thought we'd see some strange and crazy things like spaghetti power lines in the future only to be greeted by just another organic x left to rot to create methane harvesing method.

guess what?
i can also create methane out of skittles and newspaper.

At least it's not a bicycle generator being used by a guy who eats noodles.

...

OTOH, I was hoping they found a way to convert noodles to electricity in a human body without normal digestion, cause that'd be awesome.

 

[Teoes]

Pff I've been making methane out of udon and plenty of other foods for three decades. Where's my news story?

OT: Sounds cool, can surely be quite easily converted for other foods (unless udon is for some reason better qualified than other noodles or foodstuffs?!) and, duh, anything we can do to clean up our energy production is a bonus.

Also, that picture makes me hungry for udon.

 

[Danceofmasks]

Oh come on.
Noodles? You're way better off using sewage to generate power.
But noooo. Japan prefers to make burgers out of sewage.

 

[Monsterfurby]

It seems like anything these days can be turned into energy.

E=mc²

 

[Snowbell]

Wow, now I know why there were so many noodle packets in Freedom!

 

[shirkbot]

It seems like anything these days can be turned into energy.

E=mc²

That's where I was headed with it. Anything that has mass can be converted int energy. Science is nifty like that.

OT: I remember a similar concept put forth by my high school biology teacher, except his methane production method was pigs.

 

[Gather]

Noodle, use your noodle, do the noodle dance.

 

[KOMega]

Now that's using your noodle. They really moved pasta difficult problem.

 

[Evil Smurf]

This looks like fun, is it possible to use gasses in the atmosphere?

 

[KiKiweaky]

Hahaha genuinely delighted to read this that is a lot of power for something was going to go into landfill D:

 

[Nosirrah]

noodles...electricity.
noodles...electricity.
noodles...electricity.

*head explodes*

right. we've got the power to turn noodles into enough power to keep 50 homes powered.

why the f*** haven't we left the solar system yet.