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Gold/Mining/Energy : IESV -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: thomas a. burke who wrote (64)	11/10/2006 10:00:41 AM
From: jmhollen	Respond to of 87

That's pretty much the case. AD gets overlooked because propellers on sticks are more sexy. Also, many previous efforts at anaerobic digestion (AD) were not constructed as well as they should have been due to skimpy funding. Recent improvements in design and component equipment will propel AD to a very prominent position over the next 10 years. Covered lagoons at older meat packing facilities and sludge digesters at wastewater treatment plants whose primary function is BOD and COD reduction to clean up the water (..not for fuel gas generation, although it is generally made use of..) have been very poor examples with it comes to the potential productivity and efficiency that anaerobic digestion can offer. I think one needs to be careful how they use the term 'pipeline quality Methane'. AD plant produce 'Biogas' which is a combination of 60% Methane + 40% CO2 after some traces of H2S are scrubbed out. Separating the Methane from the CO2 in the Biogas stream requires another step usually accomplished using Molecular Sieves or Molecular Separators which are rather expensive as a system components. If Biogas is injected into the low-pressure side of a natural gas well field ahead of their scrubbing and prep equipment that is a good method. If the Biogas is a sufficiently diluted component of the overall gas volume of a nearby pipeline so that the CO2 content is unnoticeable, that works also. The very best applications are where the scrubbed AD Biogas can be used directly by nearby gas-fired or coal-fired power plant, gas-turbine cogeneration unit, Ethanol plant, BioDiesel plant, grain drying operations, or other fuel-hungry facilities with large boilers. AD is a terrific way to keep digestible wastes including paper, cardboard, restaurant leftovers, trimmings from vegetable processing plants, etc., etc., out of our landfills. Where large meat packing operations, egg laying facilities, and other CAFOs have daily mortality or receive 'yard dead' animals in delivery trucks, reducing the carcasses mechanically and putting them into an anaerobic digester is absolutely the best way of disposal. Most of the animals consumed feed before they expired, so you are recovering the value of that cost in the process while generating usable energy from the remains - and not landfilling them and/or avoiding rendering costs. There's a publicly 'yuchy' component to animal-based AD operations (..animal poo, innards, feathers, carcasses, etc..), but once all it is contained inside the digester system it comes out the back end as virtually odorless Biosolids that look like potting soil you would buy in a bag from Home Depot. There are some big changes coming as AD cranks up nationwide, and I'm very happy for ISEV's persistence and success. John :-) .