Convert manure gas to natural gas at farm

[ceesjan]

Is it possible to upgrade manure gas to natural gas and actually inject it in the gas infra structure for a more sustainable society? Or does anybody know any projects as such?

The manure will produce a H2S rich gas and must be treated accordingly, but will the gas from the manure not change and sometimes be flared?

Cees-Jan

 

[butelja]

I'm sure that it is totally feasible from a technical standpoint. Now is it economic when compared to other energy sources? I doubt it.

 

[MJCronin]

ceesjan,

You are not the first person to consider these issues.

What has been done in the past is to develop a small... self-contained methane system for the farmer..... This would usually involve a collection, seperation, storage and ignition system. The farmer would typically be a pig farmer (lotsa manure)located in a moderate climate and would be a current user of natural gas.

Rather than injecting the gas into the "gas infra structure" (??!!??!!), a more modest system of building heating and/or small scale electric generation is proposed. Pilot type operations have been planed and developed. You must remember that, despite the sustainable/renewable aspects of such a scheme, frequently, "there 'aint enough manure to make it wothwhile" All machinery/devices etc required to make such a system work requires capital dollars up front and maintenance.

Along the same lines, methane-type renewable energy systems have been installed at landfills and generate modest amounts of electrical power. All of these systems have been developed only because of a heavy tax-subsidy by the US Government.

Use GOOGLE and search for "manure" "power generation and renewable for more information...Try "POWER" magazine also

Just my thoughts/recollections


MJC

 

[butelja]

I bet Enron had the market cornered on BS gas options at one point.

 

[jonralph]

Best use I have seen of organic matter (Polite eh?) is heat reclamation. Farmer had a big compost/manure pile and he ran cheap plastic pipe through the middle and circulated water. The rotting organics put out heat, circulating water picked up the heat and he used the hot water for heating a house and greenhouse. Very simple effective system.

 

[witchdoc]

There is a federally funded research program (Dept. of Energy) that funds research into biomass fuels. Several years back this program looked into methane collection. You might try the department of energy website as a starter.

 

[JOM]

Injecting the gas into the state's system would probably not be approved by the gas safety regulator. The requirements to meet specifications would probably be too mush trouble for a small producer. Burning the gas on-site and utilising the heat on-site to raise steam or generate power would be a better way to go.

There used to be much talk about doing the same thing with whey produced from cheese making. Does anyone know if this is practised nowadays?

John. Cheers,
John.

 

[owg]

This is from a Dupont news release

Methane: From Cows

ambience: mooing, milking machine

We’re on a dairy farm in Iowa, where the cows are particularly well cared for. And they certainly deserve to be, because these cows are not only providing milk—they’re helping generate electricity. I’m Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet, presented by Dupont.

Roger Decker is owner of Top Deck Farm.

“We’ve been farming for forty years. We have a herd of Holstein dairy cows that we milk in a free stall barn in a parlor system. We’ve got these comfort stalls, we call ’em. If you walk up on there, it’s just like walking on a carpet in your house. It feels good on your feet, and they have a feed alley, twelve foot from where they lay.”

The reason the Holsteins here are living in such comfort is that in addition to milk, they’re also providing methane gas which will later be used to generate electricity. The cows have to be confined so that their manure can be collected.

“The manure that comes through the cow is scraped on alleys down into a system that pumps the manure into the digester, and there’ll be a heat exchanger in there and we actually heat this manure before it goes into the tank and it forms a gas at the top of the tank, and that is the methane.”

The manure is contained and burned inside the digester before it can reach the air. This addresses one of the negative side effects of producing methane from manure—the distinctive odor.

“This is a win-win situation—for neighbors, for one thing. By running it through digester, we’re going to really cut the smell down which is kind of rude to neighbors.”

Roger Decker and his family are the first farmers in Iowa to sell methane to a utility company.

Pulse of the Planet is presented by Dupont, bringing you the miracles of science, with additional support provided by the National Science Foundation. I’m Jim Metzner.

 

[DeltaCascade]

Yes. The US AgStar program describes biogas projects in the US of A. You can download project and economic analysis software from their site. Biogas: about 60% methane (natural gas), the remainder mostly CO2, also saturated with water vapour (minor problem) and often rather low sulfur concentration (or easily scrubbed). It can drive deisel or turbine generators, and about half the waste heat is needed to heat the biogas "fermenter" (heat from deisel engine liquid coolant. Process efficiency improves markedly if the rest of the waste heat can be used or sold, of course, although at increased cost of combustion engine exhaust gas heat recovery. Looks like electrical prices of about Cdn$0.06/KWh make electrical production a break-even effort (although electricity costs about half that now).

Also as above, the relatively low grade (60% methane) would be relatively expensive to transport by pipeline on a btu/kilometer basis, compared to natural gas (approx 100% methane). But, also as above, looks like great things can happen in niche markets or special situations.

Niche markets justify it nicely, like if one had a big livestock operation (ammenable to fresh pure manure collection) and had no-where else to put manure. Even flaring the gas resulting from manure's anaerobic digestion may be better than having manure contaminate ground or surface waters, although aerobic composting may be more economical if there are by-product markets. Anaerobic biogas electrical generation co-operatvies etc are relatively popular in Europe (Denmark, Germany). Of course, there are and have been countless small low tech ones throughout the world for heating and lighting, for centuries (sure beats hunting for firewood in some parts of the world).

Greenhouse gas or other environmental credits may markedly improve biogas viability. It could be a nice little market (chemical and agricultural engineering). In support of renewable energy (CO2 gas credits), Oil companies have even been buying windmill generators lately... who knows what can happen!

Cheers.