We visited a Methane Digester outside of Modesto, California on June 25. Our tour guide was one of the owners of the farm John Fiscalini. The farm produced cheese and was home to many a cow hence all the methane. There were two methane digesters on site; both 86 feet in diameter and 26 feet high- together they could hold 860,00 gallons of effluent.
All the poop from the cows first flows to an effluent pit and the big pieces are separated out and dried for bedding and maybe will be used for soil started in the future. The leftover smaller solids and liquid is piped into the two digesters. Methane bubbles inside of digester and rises to the top; it is piped to a condenser and cooled and then piped to a generator behind the dairy barn. The process produces 400-500 kilowatts of electricity- these digesters started producing electricity in June 2009.
The owner, John, has gotten grants to study co-digestion. That would mean besides his own cow waste- people in the area could bring him their organic materials – stuff that would just be going to a landfill anyway; that could include grass clippings, egg shells and fruit left over from some of the cannery’s in the area.
The electricity is sold to an outside utility- so the farm has to follow numerous regulations and has to answer to the air and water boards because it does produce a significant amount of electricity.
No comments:
Post a Comment