August 12, 2010, Woodstock, Ont – Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show has been
showcasing various technologies within the sustainable energy sector
for the last three years.
August 12, 2010, Woodstock, Ont – Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show has been showcasing various technologies within the sustainable energy sector for the last three years. Those technologies have focused heavily on wind, solar and geothermal alternatives, as well as biofuels and biomass.
In 2010, Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show, with assistance from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, will highlight a new interactive display demonstrating biogas technology. With help from a host of industry partners, the exhibit will explain the process of anaerobic digestion and production of methane gas from manure and waste products.
“Too often, we take the fundamentals for granted – we assume that everyone understands the principals of how methane gas, which is a form of energy, is produced from waste products,” says Murray Logan, coordinator of the Canadian Energy Expo held annually each September at Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show in Woodstock, Ont. “We have decided to take things right back to the beginning to show the workings of a biogas digester without the manure and gas.”
To help explain this process, a life-size mockup of an anaerobic digester has been constructed by Ontario Harvestore Systems with cutaways for attendees to enter and exit the digester in order to see the working parts inside without the manure and gas. Once inside the digester, visitors can see first hand how materials can be fed into the unit, how the mixtures are regulated and mixed, and what happens to the gas and leftovers (called digestate) afterwards.
Once visitors understand the basics, they can see an operating anaerobic digester processing manure from the 70 head of dairy cattle being milked in the Olympia Dairy Innovation Centre on the Lely and DeLaval robotic milking systems. This portable digester is the work of Highmark Renewables Research LP of Vegreville, Alberta, and is called IMUS – Integrated bioMass Utilization System. This fully transportable version of innovative Canadian technology at work is capable of processing about 200kg of waste per day on location.
“None of this could be possible without the involvement of our many industry partners who are demonstrating their products and equipment used to support digestion and also process the gas into different forms of energy afterwards,” adds Logan. “Agriculture in Ontario has the opportunity to demonstrate how waste can be turned into energy – and it doesn’t get any greener than that.”
Since biogas production is dependent on manure, this demonstration will be closely linked with the robotic milking demonstrations in the Olympia Dairy Innovation Centre at Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show.
With the research that has been conducted in the Grober Young Animal Development Centre on the health, nutrition and overall well-being of calves and lambs, the biogas project completes the dairy cycle.
“The magnitude of this project means that we will be offering VIP tours starting August 23rd and continuing through to Canada's Outdoor Farm Show on September 14, 15 & 16, 2010,” says Murray Logan. “This gives special interest energy groups, municipalities, and farm groups an opportunity to have personalized tours explaining biogas technologies in more depth and customized to their particular area of interest.”
Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show runs September 14, 15 & 16, 2010 at Canada’s Outdoor Park. For more information, visit http://www.OutdoorFarmShow.com
