Everything Poops + Business Sees The Changing Climate = Crapitalism
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 06.16.07
Months ago we posted on a landfill methane capture project: controversial because "offsets" were being sold to cover the costs of capturing and burning methane emitted from buried solid waste. Some likened the practice to selling indulgences for spiritual gain. Then, months later, the Vatican decided to go for the green, causing that simile to lose currency. Now it seems, covering and capturing all manner of poop gas is headed toward the realm of big business. Raw material in excess. Cows do it. Pigs do it. Even billions of crowded miserable little chickens do it. We think capturing the methane wafting from their piles of excrement and selling the credits for this effort is soon to be a global love story for investors. The business potential is nicely embodied by AgCert International (AgCert™), a business that sells credits for those greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions. "Headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, AgCert was founded to generate emission reductions from livestock farms to reduce the adverse impacts of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions related to global warming and climate change. AgCert is now the worldwide leader in agriculturally derived emission reductions, and we are applying our expertise to create industrial based emission reductions as well. The GHG emission reductions are pooled and sold to industrial emitters, governments, funds and energy traders."
Anaerobic digestion, the biotic and major source of atmospheric methane releases, works on straw, wasted food, animal bedding, manure....all kinds of organic material...not just the collected byproducts of factory farming.
Now if we could just think of an incentive for capitalists to conserve old growth forests and protect biodiversity on this same scale. Oh wait...there are some. Offsetting, again, if deployed for conservation reserve. And, tax credits for donating money to the Nature Conservancy, for example.
If the covered lagoon method (pictured) proves to be globally valuable for business, the upshot is a large scale incentive to prevent lagoon flooding or leakage, and the resulting loss of raw material (the poop) needed profit from a waste that, if not carefully retained to extract economic value, offends neighbors, is a potential disease vector (for Avian flu for example) and poses an ecological hazard to downstream waters. (What are those huge lagoon covers made out of anyway? Could be a good supply chain aspect to invest in.)
US-EPA (other side of pond from Ireland) is offering a Federal grants program to help animal waste handlers do a better job of managing waste, primarily through education and free consultation. Is there a potential synergy between "crapitalism" and the US-style, regulatory carrot/stick method for improving animal waste management? Or could this be a conflict looming?
Via:: RP at The Shaw Group, Inc.
Thirsty for more? Check out these related articles:
The Powerdown Show: Exploring Peak Oil and Climate Change (Video)
Prototype Biomass Gasifier To Convert California Yardwaste To Power 30,000 Homes
Blanchett to Corporations: Time to Change Climate Change
White Roofs to Sweep the World, Fight Climate Change
Comments (7)
part of the energy mix I buy from my utility includes "landfill gas" which is methane. Since cows are the biggest threat to global warming in the USA (info quoted from articles found online), why not capture and use that gas?
Crapitalism. I love it!
June 16, 2007 2:45 PM | flag a problem
dwightstreetrenter says:
Well, that would evolve putting the cows in a sealed container with no in or out air circulation. Sounds even worse than their life now.
===== author's response follows ===
The cows are already in climate controlled stalls. The manure is carried away by a chain driven conveyor , into a pit, from where it is augured by a big worm gear device into storage lagoons. The whole affair is periodically washed down and that rinseate goes also into the lagoon. In the lagoon is where anaerobes do their methane magic. The balloon cover is over the lagoon.
June 16, 2007 4:49 PM | flag a problem
Anonymous says:
...or we could just promote vegetarianism and stop breeding chickens, cows, and pigs all together. But wait...that means people actually have to give something up. On second thought, I'll just wait for the hybrid Hummer.
June 17, 2007 8:30 AM | flag a problem
Joshua says:
This is a significant shift and has a lot of upside. I remember reading about bio-digestion in Mother Earth news about 30+ years ago. Now it's gone mainstream. Then it was skewed as a methodology for the third world and small farms - which is still very applicable.
The difficulty has always been collecting the wastes efficiently. Free range cattle require hundreds of acres per cow, and you can't really send someone out with a shovel to follow them all.
Feedlots and industrially scaled penned livestock are the main beneficiaries here, which has pluses and minuses.
The downside is that this makes it more cost effective to keep livestock confined by the thousands, with all of the disease and quality of life issues for the animals that this entails. The quality of the meat, dairy and byproducts is also problematic, compared to animals who can roam to greater or lesser degrees.
The upside is that the multiple-acre manure lagoons can be brought under control, and their environmental effects mitigated. Pig farms have been particularly problematic in the SE US where they dominate certain regions, where the stench, flies, contamination of groundwater, blowouts into rivers and wetlands, and dispersal of antibiotics and hormones have despoiled entire counties.
The processed manure that results from bio-digestion is sterile, less smelly, and better suited for crop fertilizer. The burning off of the methane removes an aggressive greenhouse gas. The CO2 from burning methane is probably in carbon balance with the livestock feed. Plus you can generate electricity, and do co-generation to provide process heat, heat the livestock barns, and provide hot water for cleaning needs.
This also works for towns and cities with waste treatment plants, you know. My local plant has a series of huge egg-shaped digesters. They capture the heat from burning the methane for much of their needs. The released, treated effluent water is the most innocuous that's ever been released into the waters of the city. Not quite a Clivus Multrum, but a vast step up from what a million people had done previously.
==== author's response follows ====
Thanks for the insightful comment. I hope all readers of this post take the time to ponder the tradeoffs you cite here.
Extrapolations on your thoughts follow.
As any naive person who has traveled in the Lancaster PA, USA area can easily observe, the "nature friendly" free range livestock operations often mean trampled pastures, severely caved stream banks, high silt loads, and excessive nutrients flowing into the Chesapeake Bay.
Better management practices surely are available at low cost - where there is a will there is a way - but we should not romanticize, as often is done, about a more natural farming method being good for nature in all aspects of the product life cycle.
This applies also to the production of goat cheese and sheeps wool. Goats and sheep are extremely destructive to the environment from their over grazing if not properly managed. Every wonder why almost every new photo you see of the landscape of the Middle East shows a near barren landscape? Two millennium of goat and sheep will do that.
June 17, 2007 9:25 AM | flag a problem
jon says:
Ahh, well we certainly should talk about the positives of Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs). Because far be it from us to consider something like factory farming could go away. Or that people could fathom not eating meat.
Sustainability can supersede ethics and consideration for animals, because the people actually changing their diet or lifestyle is inconceivable. And I also forgot how destructive free range, pastured animal farming is. It must be that, and not the concentrated Smithfield Farms hog lots that are polluting the Chesapeake.
Crapitalism is exactly how it sounds and smells. A reeking compromise and excuse because it's "the best we can do".
I am dumbfounded here. People talk about it as though "making the best of a horrible industry," but ultimately that message gets distorted into "oh it may be a good thing". Before you know it the greater population deludes itself into thinking it some kind of sustainable closed loop system. It's like the Canadian and Russian governments talking about the economic boons they may reap from global warming.
I'm with Joshua: I'll nibble my vegan happy meal in my hybrid hummer.
PS to Jon: Cynicism aside, I'd love to read something that quantifies the damage of free range farming in contrast to factory farming.
June 19, 2007 2:19 PM | flag a problem
Jon says:
I'm not a complete vegetarian but after having been raised to eat meat I have cut back by over 90%.
The reason the economy of meat "works" is the final step when a truck is loaded up with the very dense weight of meat. Compare a truckload of tomatoes to a truckload of meat. Even though meat started at a deficit in terms of costs to create, it's the final step where it gets loaded into a truck that it becomes economically feasible.
Localized farming is probably the best solution. Read up on South Central Farms in South Central Los Angeles. Here was a 15 acre plot of land that was divided into a couple hundred individual garden plots, but in the end the land was basically given back to the original owner at far below market value so that the land can be "developed". Developed means put a building up on it that then becomes energy dependent on non renewable resources with a property overvaluation that causes the businesses that will reside in the property to import their goods so they can heavily mark them up to pay for their overhead. This destructive practice continues to proliferate. Yes, local cities do there part to create the problem as much if not moreso than the federal government.
Showing posts with label Better Fuel Through Pig Manure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Better Fuel Through Pig Manure. Show all posts
Friday, May 29, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
manure to methane
Okay now for the real scoop, and I do mean scoop.
The bad news-
Your average well fed dairy cow makes over 100 pounds of manure per day.
The good news-
Your average well fed dairy cow makes over 100 pounds of manure per day
Q. Why is that good news?
A. Through a process called anaerobic digestion manure can produce a gas which is mostly methane, the same thing as "natural gas".
Q. After eating 2 bowls of bean soup I had a lot of anaerobic digestion myself and yes, I did pass gas. Although this seems quite natural why should I consider it good news? None of my co-workers did!
A. Lets get back to the subject which is supposed to be cow manure not your personal indiscretions. As I was saying it is good news that cows make a lot of manure because certain types of bacteria convert the manure to methane through a process known as anaerobic digestion. This bio-methane can do all the same things natural gas does but it is better than natural gas because it is renewable.
Q. How many cows will I need so I can stay warm and stop paying my power bill?
A. It would depend on how much power you use, but 4 to 6 cows can produce enough manure to provide enough methane for the average home. However it is unlikely that your neighborhood zoning will allow you to keep cows in your yard. And even if you live in a cow friendly ‘hood there is the cost of building a collection and storage facility for all the manure. Generally speaking you will need a large tank that must be filled with the right percentage of manure solids and water. Plus you would have to buy and install a generator. Then there are some technicalities involved in keeping the manure warm enough so the bacteria can digest it and produce methane. Now you can see that this anaerobic digestion stuff is not something the average citizen can do for herself. However if you are operating a dairy with 500 or more cows you will have enough manure to produce all the electricity you need for your dairy plus you may be able to sell extra electricity to your electric utility company.
Q. So why aren't all the dairies producing electricity as well as milk? Couldn't we use biogas methane to replace a lot of the oil we buy from the Arabs?
A. Unfortunately in the US very few dairies use anaerobic digestion to produce electricity. Electric utilities in the US often make it difficult for dairies to use the power they generate and will not buy power. Also the initial cost of installing the anaerobic digester and power generation equipment is around 1 million dollars for most dairies and although a digester can pay for itself in about 6 years it can be difficult to raise the money for such an operation. In many European countries anaerobic digestion is used to produce methane and generate electricity from many types of waste, including human sewage and garbage. The US could reduce its dependence on Arab oil, reduce global warming, reduce pollution, and improve the environment by anaerobically digesting waste, all kinds of waste.
But this won’t happen until we (us citizens) insist on changes. We need to become informed, write letters to our elected officials tell them we want our sewage and garbage used to generate electricity. We want dairies, other farmers, food processors, municipal sewage operators and landfills to be able to sell power they generate to the electric utilities. We need to be willing to volunteer to pay a little more for this environmentally friendly alternative energy. We need to say we would rather pay a few cents more for home grown power than spend billions to buy oil from countries that support terrorists.
The bad news-
Your average well fed dairy cow makes over 100 pounds of manure per day.
The good news-
Your average well fed dairy cow makes over 100 pounds of manure per day
Q. Why is that good news?
A. Through a process called anaerobic digestion manure can produce a gas which is mostly methane, the same thing as "natural gas".
Q. After eating 2 bowls of bean soup I had a lot of anaerobic digestion myself and yes, I did pass gas. Although this seems quite natural why should I consider it good news? None of my co-workers did!
A. Lets get back to the subject which is supposed to be cow manure not your personal indiscretions. As I was saying it is good news that cows make a lot of manure because certain types of bacteria convert the manure to methane through a process known as anaerobic digestion. This bio-methane can do all the same things natural gas does but it is better than natural gas because it is renewable.
Q. How many cows will I need so I can stay warm and stop paying my power bill?
A. It would depend on how much power you use, but 4 to 6 cows can produce enough manure to provide enough methane for the average home. However it is unlikely that your neighborhood zoning will allow you to keep cows in your yard. And even if you live in a cow friendly ‘hood there is the cost of building a collection and storage facility for all the manure. Generally speaking you will need a large tank that must be filled with the right percentage of manure solids and water. Plus you would have to buy and install a generator. Then there are some technicalities involved in keeping the manure warm enough so the bacteria can digest it and produce methane. Now you can see that this anaerobic digestion stuff is not something the average citizen can do for herself. However if you are operating a dairy with 500 or more cows you will have enough manure to produce all the electricity you need for your dairy plus you may be able to sell extra electricity to your electric utility company.
Q. So why aren't all the dairies producing electricity as well as milk? Couldn't we use biogas methane to replace a lot of the oil we buy from the Arabs?
A. Unfortunately in the US very few dairies use anaerobic digestion to produce electricity. Electric utilities in the US often make it difficult for dairies to use the power they generate and will not buy power. Also the initial cost of installing the anaerobic digester and power generation equipment is around 1 million dollars for most dairies and although a digester can pay for itself in about 6 years it can be difficult to raise the money for such an operation. In many European countries anaerobic digestion is used to produce methane and generate electricity from many types of waste, including human sewage and garbage. The US could reduce its dependence on Arab oil, reduce global warming, reduce pollution, and improve the environment by anaerobically digesting waste, all kinds of waste.
But this won’t happen until we (us citizens) insist on changes. We need to become informed, write letters to our elected officials tell them we want our sewage and garbage used to generate electricity. We want dairies, other farmers, food processors, municipal sewage operators and landfills to be able to sell power they generate to the electric utilities. We need to be willing to volunteer to pay a little more for this environmentally friendly alternative energy. We need to say we would rather pay a few cents more for home grown power than spend billions to buy oil from countries that support terrorists.
Texas manure as fuel
Biomass Energy: Manure for Fuel Jump to: Biomass Energy | Regional Differences | Crops for Fuel | Electric Generation | Urban Biowastes | Competing for Land | Ethanol | Biodiesel
The livestock industry is creating economic opportunity for agribusiness in Texas. Beef, dairy cattle, hogs and poultry manure, also known as feedlot biomass, can be put to practical use as a renewable energy source, with dry manure and liquid manure producing different types of energy. Manure can be used for gas, electricity and fuel for a boiler, or it can be burned directly for cooking or lighting.
The best approach to using animal wastes for power depends on the amount of moisture and non-biodegradable solid materials that are contained in the manure. Both methods solve a manure disposal problem while mitigating odors and negative environmental effects.
Dry Manure for Fuel
Dry manure has long provided heating and cooking fuel for rural societies. If the water content of manure is low enough (less than 20%), dry manure can be burnt directly. Solid, dry manure includes manure from beef feedlots and dairy drylots. Burning dry manure can also release energy for the production of biogas. While supplying its own energy needs, a cattle feedlot operation could also solve its manure disposal problem, reduce odors, provide jobs, and increase the local tax base - all by installing a manure-to-energy generator on site.
The environmental benefits to processing manure into fuel include cleaner air and water. Some dairies get rid of manure by sluicing it off to lagoons, which produce methane that escapes into the air. Methane has a global warming effect that is 21 times that of carbon dioxide, so using the methane for energy production significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions. And because manure that is used in the biogas plant is not washed off land surfaces by rain and irrigation into local rivers and streams, the local watershed also benefits.
Source: Texas A&M University
Texas A&M Dry Manure Research
The Texas Agricultural Experiment Station's test results focus on using pulverized manure samples as reburn fuel in a secondary combustion chamber to lower the nitrogen oxides and specific metal emissions from coal-firing in the primary combustion chamber.
Because solid feedlot waste must be processed differently from the liquid waste of dairy operations, Texas A&M researchers are trying to determine what process and what mix of the product will create the most useable heat and, as a result, energy.
Return to Top of Page
Manure Fuels Texas Ethanol Plant
Texas is the nation's leading cattle state, with an abundance of animal waste that can be used to create energy. Because transporting dry manure far distances to power plants is impractical, it is most often used as a fuel regionally. Hereford, located in the Texas Panhandle, is known as the cattle capitol of the world with more than one million head of cattle and 100,000 dairy cows located within a 100-mile radius of the town. Hereford has added another name to their city - the ethanol capitol of Texas (see video). The area is supplying a new ethanol plant with fuel in the form of manure from cattle feedyards, eliminating the need to burn expensive natural gas.
In 2005, Panda Ethanol began construction on a $120 million ethanol plant on a 380-acre site in Hereford which is expected to be in full production in 2008. The Hereford plant is a fine example of what can be achieved when the ethanol and livestock industries work together for the benefit of both the industries and the community. Projected energy savings are equivalent to 1,000 barrels of oil per day and transportation costs are greatly reduced as well. To take advantage of another waste resource, Panda is using gray water from the city wastewater facility.
The Panhandle area was selected because of the close proximity to the facility's source of fuel (manure) as well as the feedstocks (corn and milo) that will be used. The plant utilizes a technology involving a bubbling bed fluidized gasifier that converts cattle manure and cotton gin waste into clean-burning biogas to power the plant. Corn is readily available, as this area already ships in most of their corn from the Midwest by unit train to supply the local feedyards. At harvest time, local corn will be used. Milo (a small drought-resistant grain sorghum), produced in the Panhandle, will also be used.
Local farmers have contracted with Panda to supply the manure free of charge just to get rid of the mounds of waste rather than paying to have it carted away. The Hereford ethanol plant will bring new jobs and an increased tax base to the community. About 500 to 600 workers are needed during construction of the plant and after it is fully operational, it will employ about 60 people on a permanent basis. The plant is expected to produce 100 million gallons of ethanol fuel each year.
For information on other ethanol plants in Texas, see Texas Ethanol Plants.
Wet Manure for Biogas
Anaerobic Digestion and Methane Recovery
Wet manure that is produced from dairy cattle and hogs confined in enclosed areas produces biogas, which contains about 60% methane, which is a greenhouse gas and contributor to smog that remains in the atmosphere trapping heat for 9-15 years.
Methane is also a primary component of natural gas and an important source of energy. Biogas from manure can be captured and purified to yield pipeline grade methane that is chemically the same as natural gas. It can be used on the premises for electricity or to fuel boilers or other thermal applications. Pipeline grade methane can be transported by pipeline for sale to the local power grid to run electric generators. Manure deposited on fields and pastures, or otherwise handled in a dry form, produces insignificant amounts of methane.
Liquid manure usually occurs when flushing livestock pens with water. In the anaerobic digestion process this manure is collected and broken down by bacteria in a low-oxygen environment which generates methane emissions (biogas). Anaerobic digesters (or methane digesters) such as airtight digester tanks or covered anaerobic lagoons are used for this process.
Methane digesters particularly appeal to dairy farmers because it provides a safe means of disposing of manure and avoiding odors while creating a usable energy source. Using methane in this way also prevents animal waste from polluting the ground water, and methane from seeping into the atmosphere, thereby rising levels of greenhouse gases and smog.
Anaerobic digesters are available at competitive rates and are currently in use on farms across the country, although on a small scale. For a description and photos of a covered anaerobic lagoon, see this PowerPoint presentation by the California Polytechnic State University: Construction and Operation of a Covered Lagoon Methane Recovery. At the beginning of 2008, there were 111 anaerobic digesters operating across the U.S. that produce electricity or gas to fuel boilers.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has established a voluntary program to reduce methane emissions in the livestock industry. This program, known as the AgSTAR Program, encourages adoption of anaerobic digestion technologies that recover and combust biogas (methane) for odor control or as an on-farm energy resource.
Creating energy through anaerobic digestion.
Copyright© The Pembina Institute 2006
Illustrator: David Mussell
Cowpower Video
Many livestock operations store the manure they produce in waste lagoons, or ponds. A growing number of these operations are placing floating covers on their lagoons to capture the biogas. They use it to run an engine/generator to produce electricity.
Cow Power
It takes 2.4 kilowatt-hours (kwh) of electricity to burn a 100-watt light bulb for a day. The electrical energy available in one cow's daily manure contribution can produce 3.0 kwh of "cow power."
Photo courtesy of DOE
Anaerobic Digester Tank
The air-tight anaerobic digester tank converts biomass waste to methane. Capping and channeling the methane into a productive use, instead of releasing it into the atmosphere, helps to mitigate global warming while producing a renewable energy that can be used for heating, electricity, or operation of an internal combustion engine.
The material drawn from the anaerobic digester is called sludge, or effluent. It is rich in nutrients (ammonia, phosphorus, potassium, and more than a dozen trace elements) and is an excellent soil conditioner. It can also be used as a livestock feed additive when dried.
Methane digesters add significantly to cattle feedlot operations, as they:
•add revenue to dairy operations;
•cut waste management costs;
•provide electricity and power needs;
•reduce manure odor by as much as 95%;
•reduce pesticide costs;
•reduce surface and groundwater contamination;
•help minimize run-off and other water quality issues;
•capture methane, sulfur compounds and other gases, which would otherwise have been released into the atmosphere; and,
•create nutrient-rich fertilizer, compost, livestock feed additive, and cow bedding out of the left-over byproducts.
Animal Waste Management and Water Quality
The management of animal waste is a serious concern for farm operators across the country. Large dairy and cattle operations produce enormous quantities of manure and thus methane, one of the most potent greenhouse gases. In addition to creating unpleasant odors, pathogens in manure can make water unsafe to drink or to use for recreation. Dairy farms, livestock holding areas and feedlots are areas of concentrated animal waste which can be washed off of land surfaces by rain and irrigation into local rivers and streams, and end up contaminating the local groundwater (water beneath the earth's surface in underground streams and aquifers).
Phosphorus and nitrogen in surface runoff are the major contributors to the contamination. Increasing, dairy farm owners are looking towards anaerobic digestion as a possible solution for animal waste management. Dairy cattle confined in enclosed areas such as freestall barns, produce wet manure that can be flushed into a covered anaerobic treatment lagoon to prevent pollution and odors while producing energy for livestock production operations.
Anaerobic Digester-Phosphorus Removal Project
In 2004, the City of Waco brought an environmental lawsuit against 14 dairy farmers located along Bosque River for polluting (phosphorous-loading) the watershed (higher land that drains water into the river). In a proactive move, the Central Texas Broumley Dairy Farm partnered with several Texas state agencies on a demonstration anaerobic digester-phosphorus removal project that has two objectives: to improve the water quality, water which was being polluted by dairy run-off near the Bosque River; and to generate enough electricity for the farm's operations to sell back to the grid. The project has been a great success, and is expected to begin full operation in 2008.
Texas Plant Installs Manure-to-Gas Digester Tanks
Microgy has invested $12 million in an anaerobic digester biogas production and gas conditioning facility at Huckabay Ridge in Stephenville, Texas. The facility is the first of its kind in the U.S. It is composed of 8 anaerobic digester tanks that digest manure from up to 10,000 cows. Each tank has a capacity of 916,000 gallons. The Huckabay Ridge facility has the capacity to produce 650 million Btu of natural gas per year, enough to provide all the energy needs for more than 10,000 average Texas homes. Microgy plans to build three more similar facilities.
Huckabay Ridge facility
The digesters produce pipeline-grade methane, which is purified, compressed, and fed into a nearby natural gas pipeline that carries it to Austin, Texas, where it is used by the Lower Colorado River Authority as fuel to produce electricity. In October 2008, the natural gas will also be sold to Pacific Gas and Electric Company under a new 10-year contract. The digesters also produce a nutrient-rich compost that is sent back to Producers Compost Incorporated which is situated adjacent to the Microgy facility and provides it with the cow manure used in the digesters. See this U.S. Department of Energy article.
Return to Top of Page
Additional Resources
For an overview of the use of feedlot biomass, see the Feedlot Biomass Overview in the Texas Comptroller's 2008 energy report.
Dairy Waste to Energy
This SECO report includes feasibility studies on the economic implications of anaerobic digesters on Texas dairy farms. The study provides the information needed to allow state facilities that utilize and generate revenue from agricultural land use to evaluate renewable energy production as a viable economic tool. The biogas digester capital budget sheet is available upon request.
Managing Manure with Biogas Recovery Systems: Improved Performance at Competitive Costs
This is an U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) publication.
The AgSTAR Program is a voluntary effort jointly sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the U.S. Department of Energy to encourage farm methane recovery from anaerobic digestion. AgSTAR focuses solely on the production of power from the anaerobic digestion of biomass such as livestock manure.
AgSTAR FarmWare 3.0 & Handbook
The AgSTAR FarmWare 3.0 software is a computerized decision support program that assesses whether or not a methane production, capture, and utilization system can be integrated into your farm's existing or planned manure management system. FarmWare estimates how much the system will cost and the financial benefits that may be gained by producing energy for on-farm use or sale or both. (scroll to end of page to download the software)
Anaerobic Digesters for Farms and Ranches
A DOE web site.
What is an Anaerobic Digester?
A University of Nebraska article.
Cowpower Video
An humorous, informative video that discusses the role of manure in the productive channeling of methane gas.
Renewable Electricity Production Tax Credits
Produced by the Northeast Regional Biomass Program.
Build Your Own Biogas Generator
This web site includes teacher materials and a student showcase.
Manure Digestion System Check List
Learn more about evaluating the benefits of an on-farm digester as a means of manure processing. A check list for producers to use to determine if a digester is a viable option for them is provided. This is an Agricultural Utilization Research Institute web site.
Methane's Greenhouse Gas Properties
This is an U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) publication.
The livestock industry is creating economic opportunity for agribusiness in Texas. Beef, dairy cattle, hogs and poultry manure, also known as feedlot biomass, can be put to practical use as a renewable energy source, with dry manure and liquid manure producing different types of energy. Manure can be used for gas, electricity and fuel for a boiler, or it can be burned directly for cooking or lighting.
The best approach to using animal wastes for power depends on the amount of moisture and non-biodegradable solid materials that are contained in the manure. Both methods solve a manure disposal problem while mitigating odors and negative environmental effects.
Dry Manure for Fuel
Dry manure has long provided heating and cooking fuel for rural societies. If the water content of manure is low enough (less than 20%), dry manure can be burnt directly. Solid, dry manure includes manure from beef feedlots and dairy drylots. Burning dry manure can also release energy for the production of biogas. While supplying its own energy needs, a cattle feedlot operation could also solve its manure disposal problem, reduce odors, provide jobs, and increase the local tax base - all by installing a manure-to-energy generator on site.
The environmental benefits to processing manure into fuel include cleaner air and water. Some dairies get rid of manure by sluicing it off to lagoons, which produce methane that escapes into the air. Methane has a global warming effect that is 21 times that of carbon dioxide, so using the methane for energy production significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions. And because manure that is used in the biogas plant is not washed off land surfaces by rain and irrigation into local rivers and streams, the local watershed also benefits.
Source: Texas A&M University
Texas A&M Dry Manure Research
The Texas Agricultural Experiment Station's test results focus on using pulverized manure samples as reburn fuel in a secondary combustion chamber to lower the nitrogen oxides and specific metal emissions from coal-firing in the primary combustion chamber.
Because solid feedlot waste must be processed differently from the liquid waste of dairy operations, Texas A&M researchers are trying to determine what process and what mix of the product will create the most useable heat and, as a result, energy.
Return to Top of Page
Manure Fuels Texas Ethanol Plant
Texas is the nation's leading cattle state, with an abundance of animal waste that can be used to create energy. Because transporting dry manure far distances to power plants is impractical, it is most often used as a fuel regionally. Hereford, located in the Texas Panhandle, is known as the cattle capitol of the world with more than one million head of cattle and 100,000 dairy cows located within a 100-mile radius of the town. Hereford has added another name to their city - the ethanol capitol of Texas (see video). The area is supplying a new ethanol plant with fuel in the form of manure from cattle feedyards, eliminating the need to burn expensive natural gas.
In 2005, Panda Ethanol began construction on a $120 million ethanol plant on a 380-acre site in Hereford which is expected to be in full production in 2008. The Hereford plant is a fine example of what can be achieved when the ethanol and livestock industries work together for the benefit of both the industries and the community. Projected energy savings are equivalent to 1,000 barrels of oil per day and transportation costs are greatly reduced as well. To take advantage of another waste resource, Panda is using gray water from the city wastewater facility.
The Panhandle area was selected because of the close proximity to the facility's source of fuel (manure) as well as the feedstocks (corn and milo) that will be used. The plant utilizes a technology involving a bubbling bed fluidized gasifier that converts cattle manure and cotton gin waste into clean-burning biogas to power the plant. Corn is readily available, as this area already ships in most of their corn from the Midwest by unit train to supply the local feedyards. At harvest time, local corn will be used. Milo (a small drought-resistant grain sorghum), produced in the Panhandle, will also be used.
Local farmers have contracted with Panda to supply the manure free of charge just to get rid of the mounds of waste rather than paying to have it carted away. The Hereford ethanol plant will bring new jobs and an increased tax base to the community. About 500 to 600 workers are needed during construction of the plant and after it is fully operational, it will employ about 60 people on a permanent basis. The plant is expected to produce 100 million gallons of ethanol fuel each year.
For information on other ethanol plants in Texas, see Texas Ethanol Plants.
Wet Manure for Biogas
Anaerobic Digestion and Methane Recovery
Wet manure that is produced from dairy cattle and hogs confined in enclosed areas produces biogas, which contains about 60% methane, which is a greenhouse gas and contributor to smog that remains in the atmosphere trapping heat for 9-15 years.
Methane is also a primary component of natural gas and an important source of energy. Biogas from manure can be captured and purified to yield pipeline grade methane that is chemically the same as natural gas. It can be used on the premises for electricity or to fuel boilers or other thermal applications. Pipeline grade methane can be transported by pipeline for sale to the local power grid to run electric generators. Manure deposited on fields and pastures, or otherwise handled in a dry form, produces insignificant amounts of methane.
Liquid manure usually occurs when flushing livestock pens with water. In the anaerobic digestion process this manure is collected and broken down by bacteria in a low-oxygen environment which generates methane emissions (biogas). Anaerobic digesters (or methane digesters) such as airtight digester tanks or covered anaerobic lagoons are used for this process.
Methane digesters particularly appeal to dairy farmers because it provides a safe means of disposing of manure and avoiding odors while creating a usable energy source. Using methane in this way also prevents animal waste from polluting the ground water, and methane from seeping into the atmosphere, thereby rising levels of greenhouse gases and smog.
Anaerobic digesters are available at competitive rates and are currently in use on farms across the country, although on a small scale. For a description and photos of a covered anaerobic lagoon, see this PowerPoint presentation by the California Polytechnic State University: Construction and Operation of a Covered Lagoon Methane Recovery. At the beginning of 2008, there were 111 anaerobic digesters operating across the U.S. that produce electricity or gas to fuel boilers.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has established a voluntary program to reduce methane emissions in the livestock industry. This program, known as the AgSTAR Program, encourages adoption of anaerobic digestion technologies that recover and combust biogas (methane) for odor control or as an on-farm energy resource.
Creating energy through anaerobic digestion.
Copyright© The Pembina Institute 2006
Illustrator: David Mussell
Cowpower Video
Many livestock operations store the manure they produce in waste lagoons, or ponds. A growing number of these operations are placing floating covers on their lagoons to capture the biogas. They use it to run an engine/generator to produce electricity.
Cow Power
It takes 2.4 kilowatt-hours (kwh) of electricity to burn a 100-watt light bulb for a day. The electrical energy available in one cow's daily manure contribution can produce 3.0 kwh of "cow power."
Photo courtesy of DOE
Anaerobic Digester Tank
The air-tight anaerobic digester tank converts biomass waste to methane. Capping and channeling the methane into a productive use, instead of releasing it into the atmosphere, helps to mitigate global warming while producing a renewable energy that can be used for heating, electricity, or operation of an internal combustion engine.
The material drawn from the anaerobic digester is called sludge, or effluent. It is rich in nutrients (ammonia, phosphorus, potassium, and more than a dozen trace elements) and is an excellent soil conditioner. It can also be used as a livestock feed additive when dried.
Methane digesters add significantly to cattle feedlot operations, as they:
•add revenue to dairy operations;
•cut waste management costs;
•provide electricity and power needs;
•reduce manure odor by as much as 95%;
•reduce pesticide costs;
•reduce surface and groundwater contamination;
•help minimize run-off and other water quality issues;
•capture methane, sulfur compounds and other gases, which would otherwise have been released into the atmosphere; and,
•create nutrient-rich fertilizer, compost, livestock feed additive, and cow bedding out of the left-over byproducts.
Animal Waste Management and Water Quality
The management of animal waste is a serious concern for farm operators across the country. Large dairy and cattle operations produce enormous quantities of manure and thus methane, one of the most potent greenhouse gases. In addition to creating unpleasant odors, pathogens in manure can make water unsafe to drink or to use for recreation. Dairy farms, livestock holding areas and feedlots are areas of concentrated animal waste which can be washed off of land surfaces by rain and irrigation into local rivers and streams, and end up contaminating the local groundwater (water beneath the earth's surface in underground streams and aquifers).
Phosphorus and nitrogen in surface runoff are the major contributors to the contamination. Increasing, dairy farm owners are looking towards anaerobic digestion as a possible solution for animal waste management. Dairy cattle confined in enclosed areas such as freestall barns, produce wet manure that can be flushed into a covered anaerobic treatment lagoon to prevent pollution and odors while producing energy for livestock production operations.
Anaerobic Digester-Phosphorus Removal Project
In 2004, the City of Waco brought an environmental lawsuit against 14 dairy farmers located along Bosque River for polluting (phosphorous-loading) the watershed (higher land that drains water into the river). In a proactive move, the Central Texas Broumley Dairy Farm partnered with several Texas state agencies on a demonstration anaerobic digester-phosphorus removal project that has two objectives: to improve the water quality, water which was being polluted by dairy run-off near the Bosque River; and to generate enough electricity for the farm's operations to sell back to the grid. The project has been a great success, and is expected to begin full operation in 2008.
Texas Plant Installs Manure-to-Gas Digester Tanks
Microgy has invested $12 million in an anaerobic digester biogas production and gas conditioning facility at Huckabay Ridge in Stephenville, Texas. The facility is the first of its kind in the U.S. It is composed of 8 anaerobic digester tanks that digest manure from up to 10,000 cows. Each tank has a capacity of 916,000 gallons. The Huckabay Ridge facility has the capacity to produce 650 million Btu of natural gas per year, enough to provide all the energy needs for more than 10,000 average Texas homes. Microgy plans to build three more similar facilities.
Huckabay Ridge facility
The digesters produce pipeline-grade methane, which is purified, compressed, and fed into a nearby natural gas pipeline that carries it to Austin, Texas, where it is used by the Lower Colorado River Authority as fuel to produce electricity. In October 2008, the natural gas will also be sold to Pacific Gas and Electric Company under a new 10-year contract. The digesters also produce a nutrient-rich compost that is sent back to Producers Compost Incorporated which is situated adjacent to the Microgy facility and provides it with the cow manure used in the digesters. See this U.S. Department of Energy article.
Return to Top of Page
Additional Resources
For an overview of the use of feedlot biomass, see the Feedlot Biomass Overview in the Texas Comptroller's 2008 energy report.
Dairy Waste to Energy
This SECO report includes feasibility studies on the economic implications of anaerobic digesters on Texas dairy farms. The study provides the information needed to allow state facilities that utilize and generate revenue from agricultural land use to evaluate renewable energy production as a viable economic tool. The biogas digester capital budget sheet is available upon request.
Managing Manure with Biogas Recovery Systems: Improved Performance at Competitive Costs
This is an U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) publication.
The AgSTAR Program is a voluntary effort jointly sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the U.S. Department of Energy to encourage farm methane recovery from anaerobic digestion. AgSTAR focuses solely on the production of power from the anaerobic digestion of biomass such as livestock manure.
AgSTAR FarmWare 3.0 & Handbook
The AgSTAR FarmWare 3.0 software is a computerized decision support program that assesses whether or not a methane production, capture, and utilization system can be integrated into your farm's existing or planned manure management system. FarmWare estimates how much the system will cost and the financial benefits that may be gained by producing energy for on-farm use or sale or both. (scroll to end of page to download the software)
Anaerobic Digesters for Farms and Ranches
A DOE web site.
What is an Anaerobic Digester?
A University of Nebraska article.
Cowpower Video
An humorous, informative video that discusses the role of manure in the productive channeling of methane gas.
Renewable Electricity Production Tax Credits
Produced by the Northeast Regional Biomass Program.
Build Your Own Biogas Generator
This web site includes teacher materials and a student showcase.
Manure Digestion System Check List
Learn more about evaluating the benefits of an on-farm digester as a means of manure processing. A check list for producers to use to determine if a digester is a viable option for them is provided. This is an Agricultural Utilization Research Institute web site.
Methane's Greenhouse Gas Properties
This is an U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) publication.
Better Fuel Through Pig Manure
Better Fuel Through Pig Manure
By Brandon Keim June 12, 2008 | 4:41:34 PMCategories: Animals, Energy, Environment
Gasoline made from pig manure might not smell nice, but sometimes you've just got to pinch your nose and bear it.
In a study published today in the journal Fuel, researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology provided the most detailed analysis yet of pig manure-based biofuel. It's not quite ready for the road, they found, but researchers now know what to fix.
Even more importantly, said NIST fuel expert and study co-author Tom Bruno, the methods used in the study could transform fuel analysis.
"The real significance of what we have done is not so much contributing to the development of this particular fuel source, but rather the development of a measurement technique that can be applied to all manner of fuels, including those derived from bio or renewable feed stocks," Bruno said.
Bruno's samples came from an experimental pig manure processing plant designed two years ago by Yuanhui Zhang and Les Christianson at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. By heating and pressurizing manure, they turned it into crude oil.
Boasting a manure-to-fuel efficiency of 70 percent, the researchers predicted that a single pig's production-cycle excretions could yield 21 gallons of crude oil and a neat per-pig profit of $10.
Multiply that by the 100 million pigs slaughtered each year in the U.S., and it's a billion-dollar industry. And while the amount of oil produced would be relatively small in comparison to total U.S. fuel consumption, every drop counts -- and it could help rehabilitate the 110 million tons of waste produced each year on U.S. hog farms. Much of that waste ends up in rivers, and has fed the expansion of a New Jersey-sized dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico.
That, however, remains hypothetical. The NIST analysis showed that so-called pig manure crude is still quite crude. It's about 15% water by volume, reducing its energy efficiency, and suffused with sulfur, heavy metals and nutritional supplements -- all of which could end up back in the air.
Pig crude, said Bruno, is at present "less 'clean' than petroleum-derived fuel. Of course that will change if the process is tweaked."
Such tweaks require further fine-grained analysis of the fuel -- and though NIST isn't actually involved in its production, other researchers could use their methodology, which improved upon the so-called distillation curve traditionally used to measure fuel composition and performance.
As with regular distillation curves, Bruno's team observed the fuel's change during heating. But they did so by heating the sample in precise gradations, broke down the energy and pollutant content of fuel burned at each stage of heating, and bombarded leftover char with neurons to detect the heavy metals inside.
That process gives an unusually clear picture of the fuel, and can be used to analyze other biofuels.
"Could that have a carbon emission impact, either in revising current estimates or improving fuel use?" I asked.
"You betcha," he said
By Brandon Keim June 12, 2008 | 4:41:34 PMCategories: Animals, Energy, Environment
Gasoline made from pig manure might not smell nice, but sometimes you've just got to pinch your nose and bear it.
In a study published today in the journal Fuel, researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology provided the most detailed analysis yet of pig manure-based biofuel. It's not quite ready for the road, they found, but researchers now know what to fix.
Even more importantly, said NIST fuel expert and study co-author Tom Bruno, the methods used in the study could transform fuel analysis.
"The real significance of what we have done is not so much contributing to the development of this particular fuel source, but rather the development of a measurement technique that can be applied to all manner of fuels, including those derived from bio or renewable feed stocks," Bruno said.
Bruno's samples came from an experimental pig manure processing plant designed two years ago by Yuanhui Zhang and Les Christianson at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. By heating and pressurizing manure, they turned it into crude oil.
Boasting a manure-to-fuel efficiency of 70 percent, the researchers predicted that a single pig's production-cycle excretions could yield 21 gallons of crude oil and a neat per-pig profit of $10.
Multiply that by the 100 million pigs slaughtered each year in the U.S., and it's a billion-dollar industry. And while the amount of oil produced would be relatively small in comparison to total U.S. fuel consumption, every drop counts -- and it could help rehabilitate the 110 million tons of waste produced each year on U.S. hog farms. Much of that waste ends up in rivers, and has fed the expansion of a New Jersey-sized dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico.
That, however, remains hypothetical. The NIST analysis showed that so-called pig manure crude is still quite crude. It's about 15% water by volume, reducing its energy efficiency, and suffused with sulfur, heavy metals and nutritional supplements -- all of which could end up back in the air.
Pig crude, said Bruno, is at present "less 'clean' than petroleum-derived fuel. Of course that will change if the process is tweaked."
Such tweaks require further fine-grained analysis of the fuel -- and though NIST isn't actually involved in its production, other researchers could use their methodology, which improved upon the so-called distillation curve traditionally used to measure fuel composition and performance.
As with regular distillation curves, Bruno's team observed the fuel's change during heating. But they did so by heating the sample in precise gradations, broke down the energy and pollutant content of fuel burned at each stage of heating, and bombarded leftover char with neurons to detect the heavy metals inside.
That process gives an unusually clear picture of the fuel, and can be used to analyze other biofuels.
"Could that have a carbon emission impact, either in revising current estimates or improving fuel use?" I asked.
"You betcha," he said
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)