MeadWestvaco Corp., VOW Resources and Zera Energy today announced a strategic, collaborative development effort to enable the conversion of organic waste streams into biogas and other value added products. The companies will immediately begin construction on a demonstration plant adjacent to MWV’s Evadale, Texas, mill. VOW Resources, an organic waste management and resource recovery company, will provide the design, engineering and testing of the process to be used at the plant; Zera Energy will be responsible for the construction and operation of the plant; and MWV will determine the technical and commercial feasibility of the biogas generation process and, upon successful testing, will apply the technology to its waste treatment operations.
Construction of the demonstration plant is expected to be complete around November of 2010. Initially, the biogas facility will create approximately 30 construction jobs and provide 12 full-time positions at the demonstration plant. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
“This is an exciting opportunity to apply advancements in green technology to enhance our operations and generate renewable energy sources,” said Jim Gresham, vice president, MWV’s Evadale Operations. “We anticipate numerous benefits from this collaborative effort, including reducing consumption of water and natural gas, lowering our landfill requirements and creating a valuable organic fertilizer.”
Source :Press Release
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Great Plains Institute Report : Spotlight On Biogas
The Great Plains Institute has released a report on the potential of biogas in the Midwest.
This report’s purpose is twofold: one, to provide an overview of the current policy environment that supports biogas project development, and two, to examine additional policy mechanisms and reforms to current policies that could provide a framework for the increased development of biogas projects.
There are many technologies, both new and emerging, to produce biogas. This report mainly focuses on anaerobic digestion, either at the farm or industrial scale, with an emphasis on agricultural feedstocks (manure, crop resides, food processing byproducts). Landfill gas and wastewater treatment projects are additional sources of biogas production in the United States and are included in the report, but are not the main focus.
Spotlight on Biogas: Policies for Utilization and Deployment in the Midwest (PDF)
This report’s purpose is twofold: one, to provide an overview of the current policy environment that supports biogas project development, and two, to examine additional policy mechanisms and reforms to current policies that could provide a framework for the increased development of biogas projects.
There are many technologies, both new and emerging, to produce biogas. This report mainly focuses on anaerobic digestion, either at the farm or industrial scale, with an emphasis on agricultural feedstocks (manure, crop resides, food processing byproducts). Landfill gas and wastewater treatment projects are additional sources of biogas production in the United States and are included in the report, but are not the main focus.
Spotlight on Biogas: Policies for Utilization and Deployment in the Midwest (PDF)
From waste to energy
Students will be working this fall to install a pilot digester system at the Cornell Cooperative Farm in Canton, New York, and then evaluate the economic feasibility of treating agricultural waste at small farms to generate renewable energy. The scaled version of a 50-cow digester will allow for the completion of a mass and energy balance over an 18 month period. This information will be of critical importance for the economic assessment of the proposed process. Up to now, farm digesters have been thought to be only economical in the US for very large farms. However, in New York State the majority of farms are small and only 50 % of the cows are housed on large farms. Therefore if this research is successful many farmers would have access to this form of renewable energy significantly reducing the farmers cost for energy in form of heat and electricity.
The construction and testing of the digester is the second phase of a successful SPEED project. An interdisciplinary team of Clarkson students competed in the 2010 EPA P3 Sustainability Design competition last April and brought home a $75,000 grant to complete Phase II of the project. The team presented their work on "Farm Waste to Energy: A Sustainable Solution for Small-Scale Farms" at the competition. Students developed and tested in the laboratory a hybrid process that would treat all of their organic waste (manure, food waste, hay, grasses, etc.) in an anaerobic digester generating biogas, which is used to produce heat and electricity. The goal of the project is to develop and optimize a viable anaerobic digester technology for dairy farms in cold climates with 50 or fewer cows. The digesters would utilize dairy manure and other co-substrates on small farms to create biogas for energy production. The team, which is advised by professors Stefan J. Grimberg, Shane Rogers, and Rick Welsh, also won a P3 Student Choice Award at last year's competition.
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The construction and testing of the digester is the second phase of a successful SPEED project. An interdisciplinary team of Clarkson students competed in the 2010 EPA P3 Sustainability Design competition last April and brought home a $75,000 grant to complete Phase II of the project. The team presented their work on "Farm Waste to Energy: A Sustainable Solution for Small-Scale Farms" at the competition. Students developed and tested in the laboratory a hybrid process that would treat all of their organic waste (manure, food waste, hay, grasses, etc.) in an anaerobic digester generating biogas, which is used to produce heat and electricity. The goal of the project is to develop and optimize a viable anaerobic digester technology for dairy farms in cold climates with 50 or fewer cows. The digesters would utilize dairy manure and other co-substrates on small farms to create biogas for energy production. The team, which is advised by professors Stefan J. Grimberg, Shane Rogers, and Rick Welsh, also won a P3 Student Choice Award at last year's competition.
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Monday, September 6, 2010
Biodigester That Turns Manure into Methane Demonstrated at Farm Science Review
Farmers interested in alternative energy technologies for the farm can learn more about the small-scale biodigester developed by Ohio State University ecological engineers. The technology will be demonstrated at Farm Science Review, Sept. 21-23 at the Molly Caren Agricultural Center in London, Ohio.
Jay Martin, a researcher with the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, has developed a modified fixed-dome digester that can make methane from manure, which can either be burned as an alternative to natural gas or propane, or converted to electricity using a generator. The 300-gallon biodigester, installed at Waterman Agriculture and Natural Resources Laboratory in Columbus, is designed specifically to cater to average-sized and smaller livestock farms – around 150 dairy cows on average.
"There are less than 200 digesters working on livestock farms in the United States, and those digesters are designed for large-scale industrial dairy operations in the range of 10,000 or 15,000 head. And they are expensive – around $1 million to implement," said Martin, who is also an associate professor with the Department of Food, Agricultural, and Biological Engineering. "Right now, only farms with around 1,000 cows or larger can use digesters. You crunch the numbers and more than 95 percent of the livestock farmers in the U.S. can't use this technology to create renewable energy."
Recognizing the need for smaller-scale, affordable biodigesters, Martin and his colleagues turned to technologies widely implemented in China, India and South American nations like Costa Rica, and adapted a biodigester for Ohio's climate.
The result is a biodigester that can generate 500 liters of biogas a day -- 60 percent methane and 40 percent carbon dioxide. For now, 10 gallons of manure is added per day, and the renewable energy generated is enough to cook a few meals.
The biodigester technology being demonstrated at Farm Science Review is a mini version (about 5 gallons) of the Waterman model. The mini biodigester can create enough biogas to roast a few marshmallows.
Martin said that the technology being demonstrated is the first step in determining how successful biodigesters can be on Ohio dairy farms.
"One of the challenges of a biodigester is the air temperature. The microbes that turn the organic matter into biogas are sensitive to colder temperatures," said Martin. "How the biodigester performs in winter will aid in determining if such technology can be successful in Ohio."
The Waterman biodigester was installed last October and researchers, including graduate students Richard Ciotola and Juan Castano, began monitoring biogas generation this spring. If successful, Martin envisions scaling up the biodigester to 5,000 or 10,000 gallons.
"A thousand-gallon biodigester is probably the minimum right now that a farmer would need to get up and running, and the smaller-scale is much more affordable – about $100 per cow for the system," said Martin. "The key to the design is based on optimum amount of manure that can be collected per day for the greatest amount of biogas produced."
Researchers are still exploring minimum and maximum manure loads that the 300-gallon biodigester can handle. Too little manure, and not enough biogas is created. Too much manure, and the pH drops, killing off the microbes that create the biogas.
Martin envisions farmers using biodigester technology in such applications as heating water for cleaning milk parlors. In addition, through the conversion process of manure to biogas, the displaced liquid – rich in inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus – can be applied to field crops as fertilizer.
The mini biodigester model will be on display at Farm Science Review in front of the Firebaugh Building on Friday Avenue in the exhibitor area. There will be daily demonstrations of how the technology works.
Source : Ohio State University
Jay Martin, a researcher with the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, has developed a modified fixed-dome digester that can make methane from manure, which can either be burned as an alternative to natural gas or propane, or converted to electricity using a generator. The 300-gallon biodigester, installed at Waterman Agriculture and Natural Resources Laboratory in Columbus, is designed specifically to cater to average-sized and smaller livestock farms – around 150 dairy cows on average.
"There are less than 200 digesters working on livestock farms in the United States, and those digesters are designed for large-scale industrial dairy operations in the range of 10,000 or 15,000 head. And they are expensive – around $1 million to implement," said Martin, who is also an associate professor with the Department of Food, Agricultural, and Biological Engineering. "Right now, only farms with around 1,000 cows or larger can use digesters. You crunch the numbers and more than 95 percent of the livestock farmers in the U.S. can't use this technology to create renewable energy."
Recognizing the need for smaller-scale, affordable biodigesters, Martin and his colleagues turned to technologies widely implemented in China, India and South American nations like Costa Rica, and adapted a biodigester for Ohio's climate.
The result is a biodigester that can generate 500 liters of biogas a day -- 60 percent methane and 40 percent carbon dioxide. For now, 10 gallons of manure is added per day, and the renewable energy generated is enough to cook a few meals.
The biodigester technology being demonstrated at Farm Science Review is a mini version (about 5 gallons) of the Waterman model. The mini biodigester can create enough biogas to roast a few marshmallows.
Martin said that the technology being demonstrated is the first step in determining how successful biodigesters can be on Ohio dairy farms.
"One of the challenges of a biodigester is the air temperature. The microbes that turn the organic matter into biogas are sensitive to colder temperatures," said Martin. "How the biodigester performs in winter will aid in determining if such technology can be successful in Ohio."
The Waterman biodigester was installed last October and researchers, including graduate students Richard Ciotola and Juan Castano, began monitoring biogas generation this spring. If successful, Martin envisions scaling up the biodigester to 5,000 or 10,000 gallons.
"A thousand-gallon biodigester is probably the minimum right now that a farmer would need to get up and running, and the smaller-scale is much more affordable – about $100 per cow for the system," said Martin. "The key to the design is based on optimum amount of manure that can be collected per day for the greatest amount of biogas produced."
Researchers are still exploring minimum and maximum manure loads that the 300-gallon biodigester can handle. Too little manure, and not enough biogas is created. Too much manure, and the pH drops, killing off the microbes that create the biogas.
Martin envisions farmers using biodigester technology in such applications as heating water for cleaning milk parlors. In addition, through the conversion process of manure to biogas, the displaced liquid – rich in inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus – can be applied to field crops as fertilizer.
The mini biodigester model will be on display at Farm Science Review in front of the Firebaugh Building on Friday Avenue in the exhibitor area. There will be daily demonstrations of how the technology works.
Source : Ohio State University
Colorado State University Professor Developing Anaerobic Digester to Reduce Cost of Waste Disposal, Particularly in Western States
A Colorado State University professor is developing an anaerobic digester that turns animal waste into methane using much less water than conventional technology, making it more economically feasible and easier for use by feedlots and dairies in Western states.
Anaerobic digesters are often applied at large animal feeding operations elsewhere in the country, largely in the Midwest or on the East Coast, because of the abundance of water resources, said Sybil Sharvelle, assistant professor of civil engineering. High liquid content waste is required by existing technology to enable pumping and mixing of the waste in addition to stimulation of the growth of microorganisms that convert waste into methane.
“In the arid West, you pay for water rights, so water use is very controlled and there’s a financial motivation for producers to conserve water, which is why management practices are different,” Sharvelle said.
Sharvelle and her graduate student, Luke Loetscher, are collaborating with Fort Collins, Colo.-based Stewart Environmental Consultants Inc. and the university’s Agricultural Experiment Stations to evaluate the feasibility of anaerobic digestion at Colorado feeding operations. She has an Extension appointment to help tackle issues related to agricultural waste throughout the state of Colorado.
Stewart Energy, a wholly owned subsidiary of Stewart Environmental Consults in Fort Collins, is working to commercialize the process and has an exclusive option to license the process from the Colorado State University Research Foundation, or CSURF.
Forbes Guthrie, CEO of Stewart Energy, said, “This process addresses a significant and underserved market of energy production from low-moisture biomass. In addition, the process will ultimately help the agricultural community to meet more stringent environmental regulations with regards to both air and water emissions and, at the same time, provide the operations with stable and predictable energy costs for multiple years in advance.”
Sharvelle’s system is unique because it separates the digestion process into two major steps. How it works: Water is trickled over dry waste in a vessel to capture organic materials and convert nearly 60 percent of the solid material into liquid organic acids. The liquid is put into another reactor which is heated to incubate the bacteria living in the digester. These bacteria then convert waste into methane.
That separation of processes also assists Western farming and ranching operations that must contend with rocks and sand in the waste when they scrape it from their lots. These materials are detrimental to operation of conventional anaerobic digestion technology. With Sharvelle’s system, remaining solids from the first step – known as hydrolysis – are separated and can be composted.
“Feedlots are huge and they produce a lot of manure, and the compost they produce is usually more than the area around them has demand for,” Sharvelle said. “Feedlots are often located in areas where there is not a lot of fertile farmland, so they’re ending up with this extra waste material that there’s nothing to do with.”
The methane produced in the digester can then be used as a source of energy to run a generator and used in a natural gas pipeline once byproducts such as carbon dioxide are removed.
Biological processing through anaerobic digestion became common practice with wastewater treatment in the 1960s and 1970s, Sharvelle said.
Sharvelle is based in the College of Engineering. Her research interests include biological waste processing, water reuse and sustainable water and waste management. She also contributes to the CSU Institute for Livestock and Environment with the goal of finding practical, economical solutions to minimize environmental impacts from the livestock industry.
Anaerobic digesters are often applied at large animal feeding operations elsewhere in the country, largely in the Midwest or on the East Coast, because of the abundance of water resources, said Sybil Sharvelle, assistant professor of civil engineering. High liquid content waste is required by existing technology to enable pumping and mixing of the waste in addition to stimulation of the growth of microorganisms that convert waste into methane.
“In the arid West, you pay for water rights, so water use is very controlled and there’s a financial motivation for producers to conserve water, which is why management practices are different,” Sharvelle said.
Sharvelle and her graduate student, Luke Loetscher, are collaborating with Fort Collins, Colo.-based Stewart Environmental Consultants Inc. and the university’s Agricultural Experiment Stations to evaluate the feasibility of anaerobic digestion at Colorado feeding operations. She has an Extension appointment to help tackle issues related to agricultural waste throughout the state of Colorado.
Stewart Energy, a wholly owned subsidiary of Stewart Environmental Consults in Fort Collins, is working to commercialize the process and has an exclusive option to license the process from the Colorado State University Research Foundation, or CSURF.
Forbes Guthrie, CEO of Stewart Energy, said, “This process addresses a significant and underserved market of energy production from low-moisture biomass. In addition, the process will ultimately help the agricultural community to meet more stringent environmental regulations with regards to both air and water emissions and, at the same time, provide the operations with stable and predictable energy costs for multiple years in advance.”
Sharvelle’s system is unique because it separates the digestion process into two major steps. How it works: Water is trickled over dry waste in a vessel to capture organic materials and convert nearly 60 percent of the solid material into liquid organic acids. The liquid is put into another reactor which is heated to incubate the bacteria living in the digester. These bacteria then convert waste into methane.
That separation of processes also assists Western farming and ranching operations that must contend with rocks and sand in the waste when they scrape it from their lots. These materials are detrimental to operation of conventional anaerobic digestion technology. With Sharvelle’s system, remaining solids from the first step – known as hydrolysis – are separated and can be composted.
“Feedlots are huge and they produce a lot of manure, and the compost they produce is usually more than the area around them has demand for,” Sharvelle said. “Feedlots are often located in areas where there is not a lot of fertile farmland, so they’re ending up with this extra waste material that there’s nothing to do with.”
The methane produced in the digester can then be used as a source of energy to run a generator and used in a natural gas pipeline once byproducts such as carbon dioxide are removed.
Biological processing through anaerobic digestion became common practice with wastewater treatment in the 1960s and 1970s, Sharvelle said.
Sharvelle is based in the College of Engineering. Her research interests include biological waste processing, water reuse and sustainable water and waste management. She also contributes to the CSU Institute for Livestock and Environment with the goal of finding practical, economical solutions to minimize environmental impacts from the livestock industry.