Waste to Energy in Colorado

I wish you wouldn't talk about squeezing out waste streams. :hand:

Tom

 

Those of us on high fibre diets and with healthy GI tracts tend to squeeze out more waste streams than others

I really wish more animal waste would be turned into methane and then into energy. It's an absolutely s*** idea - in a very literal sense - to have animal s*** end up in lagoons and then onto fields,

That sort of fertilizer is so strong it tends to burn crops, not help them grow

Not only do digester systems get rid of the vast majority of animal sewage odor, the methane production allows the farm to be completely self sufficient wrt electricity needs.

Combine the sewage digester methane with a combined heat and power system - aka cogen - and you take care of all the winter heating needs too.

The stuff left over from digester is much more appropriate as fertilizer, not near as stinky either. For the most part, the same approach can be applied to human sewage

Why more aren't applying this, is completely beyond my understanding

 

So you've read my avatar

 

It did give me the idea

 

Hi All,

NBC (I think it was) had a bit on Pork Projects on the evening news. The first one they picked on was Pig Manure in Iowa - 1.8 million to deal with it. Hell, it should ge 180 million!!If that is not the biggest wasted source of energy between the Mississippi and Misouri rivers, I do not now what is!! Every livestock farm should have a massive digester, and a line to the Natural Gas distribution network. NBC is wacko!! If you have ever driven past a Pig farm, you know its up ahead about 1 mile (NO EXAGERATION) away, and its is nasty!! Oil Refineries have NOTHING on Pig farms.

 

Truly retarded.

So it's ok to just dump all that pig s*** into leaky, overflowing lagoons, and let it migrate into surface and subsurface water sources?

I've said it before and will say it again: the ROI for animal sewage digestion (Methane production) is under 5 years, usually under 3 years.

Once digested, the resulting sludge is MUCH reduced in volume, is nowhere near as stenchy, and much safer to spread on fields and such.

A lot of folks, apparently those at NBC, have no clue that to make it easier to clean up the manure, pig barns have subfloors, with grating above for the critters to walk around and poop on. The subfloor is inclined and has water running, think ancient Roman public restroom.

So they have to deal with a huge water volume of liquid pig s*** waste. Hence the need for giant sewage lagoons, which are often poorly constructed

 

Here is another emerging technology for extracting energy from waste

MagneGas Corporation | www.MagneGas.com

 

Nice, very nice!

Another way to turn waste into something useful: a neighbor of mine near my hobby farm has a pellet stove. I'm a bit leery of burning what should be valuable fiber products, but it would just be disposed of anyway

Nice dry heat too

 

To answer your question, here's how it works. The average power plant in the U.S. is about 34% efficient. The other two-thirds of the fuel gets wasted, mainly in the form of waste heat that's vented out of the smokestacks. Then once the power goes to manufacturers, they waste still more energy by sending their waste heat up the smokestacks, too. The solution is something called energy recycling, which takes this waste heat and turns it into clean power and steam. I'm associated with Recycled Energy Development, the leading company in this area. And according to EPA and DOE studies, more energy recycling would slash greenhouse gas emissions by 20% in the U.S. That's as much as if we removed every passenger vehicle from the road. Much more of this needs to be done.

 

We need a forward-looking, promethian (consequential) perspective on "waste." Germany has led the way with "pre-cycling" eliminating waste before it enters the waste stream.

One example is our approach to carbon credits. Carbon credits are like putting a humidifier in a room, then putting a dehumidifier in as well to offset the effects.

This can be expanded to efficiency in housing and transportation - major energy factors in the US. Increasingly farmers have a connect with dairies and feed lot operations - using manure locally in vineyards, tree fruit and residential compost operations. Schools and businesses are installing photovoltaic systems where employees can plug in during work - offering an incentive for PHEVs or, under current federal law, offering $20 month for riding your bicycle to and from work.

 

I'm a big fan of Combined Heat and Power - CHP - which is also known as "co-gen"

Almost every industry has need for heat: eg steam production, process batch reactor heating, etc. Traditional boilers and recovery boilers can be easily supplemented with CHP to dramatically reduce energy consumption, improve efficiency, etc etc

However, I also feel that it would be more efficient for me to just bang my head against the wall than to convince decision makers - AKA "The Old Boys Club" - that CHP actually does work

:frusty:

Ow. I need a drink

 

This "low grade heat source" is another example of CHP

 

Hi All,

Have to commend Toyota for putting a CHP feature in the 2010 Prius. Although, I still hate the center console!!