Manure Manager

News
In the News: November/December 2010


November 22, 2010  by Manure Manager

The newest installation is on a dairy heifer calf raising facility near
Albany, N.Y. The facility maintains 2,000 head when full. The farm’s new
composting and heat recovery system will help to eliminate the
operation’s dependence on propane, while reducing diesel, electric and
grid-based energy dependence.

AgriLab Technologies completes new installation
AgriLab Technologies, LLP has completed installation of its second project in North America.

The newest installation is on a dairy heifer calf raising facility near Albany, N.Y. The facility maintains 2,000 head when full. The farm’s new composting and heat recovery system will help to eliminate the operation’s dependence on propane, while reducing diesel, electric and grid-based energy dependence.

AgriLab Technologies has demonstrated that the farm can capture in excess of 1,000 BTUs of energy from each ton of composting feedstock, per hour. The installation will process approximately 500 tons of material weekly, generating an average of 190,000 BTUs per hour or 4,560,000 BTUs daily. Systems are designed to scale needs.

Advertisement

The heat will be used to meet the facility’s 11,000-gallon-per-day hot water needs and heat buildings on the complex. Finished, stabilized compost material will be used as livestock bedding and ultimately field applied, reducing the farm’s dependence on chemical-based fertilizer derived from fossil fuels. This will help the farm improve soil health while protecting water resources and the environment.

Systems are powered by low energy, in-line electric fans on timers to create negative aeration through compost feed stock. Standard zone valves facilitate water circulation needs.

This technology is applicable to any farm or facility managing and composting organic waste feed stock, such as a livestock operation looking to maximize the benefits of waste diversion through aerobic composting.
www.agrilab.ca


Catalyst Power natural gas now flowing
Mountains of manure from cows and chickens are helping to heat houses and cook dinner.

Canada’s first biogas upgrading system is now up and running at an Abbotsford farm about 80 miles southeast of Vancouver, B.C. Catalyst Power is aggregating the dairy, poultry and vegetable waste from several local farms and converting it into pipeline-quality natural gas that is injected directly into the local utility grid, helping to provide energy to more than 900,000 customers across the province.

The system is using a water-scrubbing process from Flotech Inc, a New Zealand-based company, to upgrade the methane to natural gas quality. The water scrubber installed at the B.C. farm has the capacity to process 460 standard cubic feet per minute – the equivalent of about 1.5 megawatts of electricity or enough to heat about 1,000 homes. The system has the lowest energy consumption per unit feed of any biogas or landfill upgrading system operating in the U.S. and Canada, according to Sean Mezei, president of Flotech North America. It also boasts a 98 percent yield of methane from raw biogas and delivers a methane purity level of 97 percent.

With the first of the natural gas now flowing into the grid, Catalyst Power has its sights set on building a number of similar systems at farms across Canada. Flotech is also actively involved in a number of larger projects in the U.S. that are expected to come online early next year.


Farm Power breaks ground on second dairy digester
Farm Power, a Washington renewable energy company, broke ground on its second anaerobic manure digester in late June.

The new digester project will serve the energy needs of local homes and businesses through Puget Sound Energy (PSE)’s Green Power program.

The dairy digester, based in Lynden, Wash., is expected to go online before the end of the year, and will produce up to 750 kilowatts of energy – enough electricity to meet the needs of 500 homes.

Skagit County residents and brothers Kevin and Daryl Maas founded Farm Power in 2007 to address concerns about the health of the environment and the future of the traditional family farm. Farm Power works with local dairy farmers to build regional digesters that serve multiple farms. Anaerobic dairy digesters transform cow manure and other agricultural waste into clean, renewable energy by converting waste into methane-rich biogas needed to fuel an electric generator.

Currently, Farm Power has one digester in operation, located near Mount Vernon, Wash., which processes manure from neighboring dairy farms in Skagit County to produce up to 750 kilowatts of energy. All of the digester’s energy output is used by PSE’s Green Power.


EnviTec Biogas AG constructing biogas plants in France
EnviTec Biogas AG has won the first contracts for the construction of biogas plants in France.

The company has teamed up with agricultural firm Le Crom to build a biogas plant rated for an electrical output of 500 kilowatts in the locality of Rohan in Brittany.

EnviTec Biogas AG has also won contracts for the construction of biogas plants from three other French customers. In Ribeauville, the company will build a 1.2-megawatt biogas plant for Agrivalor Energie. In Etreville, a biogas plant with an electrical output of 1 megawatt is scheduled to go into service before the end of2010. A 1.7 megawatt plant will be erected in the southeast of France, in the community of Romans-sur-Isere. The plant is expected to produce enough heat to supply the community’s industrial area.

Advertisement

Stories continue below

Print this page

Related