[Digestion] Attachment to previous Article - More scientific based research and questions

Tue Oct 5 17:08:41 CDT 2010

G'day All,

A couple of people have asked for the attachment to an article I reposted
for Dhanesh Kumar [daquab4u at gmail.com]. I left it off thinking it had
exceeded the Listserver size limit but will try again.

Happy Digesting,

HOOROO

Turning Trash Into Power
Biological Engineers Generate Natural Gas with Bacteria

October 1, 2006 - A new kind of waste digester uses two different strains of
bacteria in different tanks. This would normally take place in the same
environment, but microbiologists have now separated it into two stages that
increases natural-gas production. The technology increases efficiency and
can turn three tons of food scraps into enough energy to power 25 homes for
a day. 

  _____  

See also: 

 <http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/plants_animals/> Plants & Animals

*	Extreme
<http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/plants_animals/extreme_survival/>
Survival
*	Bacteria <http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/plants_animals/bacteria/>

 <http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/earth_climate/> Earth & Climate

*	Energy and <http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/earth_climate/energy/>
the Environment
*	Renewable
<http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/earth_climate/renewable_energy/>  Energy

 <http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/matter_energy/> Matter & Energy

*	Electricity
<http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/matter_energy/electricity/> 
*	Organic
<http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/matter_energy/organic_chemistry/>
Chemistry

 <http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/> Reference

*	Biodegradation
<http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/b/biodegradation.htm> 
*	Waste <http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/w/waste_management.htm>
management
*	Biomass <http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/b/biomass.htm> 
*	Sewage <http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/s/sewage_treatment.htm>
treatment

DAVIS, Calif. -- There's a new twist on the old adage, one man's trash is
another man's treasure. Now that trash may be another man's power.
Researchers in California are turning garbage into bio-gas that may one day
provide the electricity in your home. 

Trash could soon be powering your home. A new digester can transform it into
energy. It uses two strains of bacteria to convert waste into bio-gas. Most
digesters store both bacteria in the same tank, which makes the process
unpredictable and slow. But not this digester. 

"Zhang's process takes the two bacteria and separates them into two separate
environments," Dave Konwinski, the director of OnSite Power Systems in
Davis, Calif., tells DBIS. 

This new and improved digester is the brain child of Biological Engineer
Ruihong Zhang. She and her students at UC Davis first built its prototype in
the lab. She's thrilled her new technology is being put to use in the real
world. 

"It's a new technology ... So it's like a child grow into adult," she says. 

The digester will turn three tons of food scraps into energy for 25 houses a
day. But it's not just for homes. The digester could be especially useful to
fuel processing plants. It s scheduled to be up and running this fall.
OnSite Power Systems plans to market it in several states in the next couple
of years, including California, Wisconsin and Minnesota. 

"We can actually scale a digester to fit their current operations, fill it
right at their operations, take the waste stream into the digester, and the
energy right back into the plant," Konwinski says. "It will make a
substantial dent in our current energy requirement for petroleum." 

It's a win-win-win situation for the environment, industry and consumers.

BACKGROUND: Environmental engineers at the University of California, Davis,
are building a full-scale anaerobic digester that can convert any type of
solid organic waste into electricity -- even leftovers from restaurants. The
system is part of the $100,000 Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD
pilot project), but an even larger digester system is being put into place
in San Francisco.

HOW IT WORKS: In the process, food waste is collected from restaurants and
institutions and then fed to bacteria that thrive in low-oxygen
environments. It's called anaerobic digestion, a naturally occurring process
of decomposition. One type of bacteria turns carbohydrates into simple
sugars, amino acids and fatty acids. A second group of bacteria eats those
compounds and turns them into hydrogen gas, carbon dioxide, and acetic acid
-- the primary component of vinegar. Then a third group of bacteria takes
those broken-down compounds and turns them into methane and carbon dioxide.
Between 60 and 80 percent becomes methane. The methane can be used as fuel
for an internal combustion engine that provides electricity.

TYPES OF DIGESTION: Anaerobic digestion is not the same thing as human
digestion, since the type of bacteria that produce methane don't live in the
human digestive tract. Industrial anaerobic digesters can also harness this
natural process to treat waste, provide heat, and increase nutrients in
soil. They are most commonly used for sewage treatment and for managing
animal waste.

BENEFITS: The goal of SMUD is to obtain 20 percent of its electricity from
renewable sources such as wind, solar, and biodegradable matter by 2011.
Currently SMUD derives 10 percent of its electricity from renewable sources,
of which biomass accounts for 2.5 percent. The UC-Davis digester would keep
food and other biodegradable waste out of landfills; food leftovers account
for 18 percent of a landfill's contents. One tone of leftover food can
produce enough fuel to power 18 homes for one day. 

WHAT ARE EXTREMOPHILES? An extremophile is any microbe that thrives in
extreme conditions, such as temperature (extreme heat or cold), pressure,
salinity, low oxygen environments, or high concentrations of hostile
chemicals. Most extremophiles belong to a class known as archaeobacteria,
but certain species of worm, crustacean and krill can also be considered
extremophiles. 

The Institute of <http://www.ieeeusa.org/>  Electrical and Electronics
Engineers, Inc., contributed to the information contained in the TV portion
of this report.

 <http://www.ivanhoe.com/ftk> http://www.sciencedaily.com/images/ivanhoe.gif

Note: This story and accompanying video were originally produced for the
American Institute of Physics series Discoveries and Breakthroughs
<http://www.aip.org/dbis/>  in Science by Ivanhoe Broadcast News and are
protected by copyright law. All rights reserved.

Ads by Google

Advertise here
<https://adwords.google.com/select/OnsiteSignupLandingPage?client=ca-pub-178
7672658759074&referringUrl=http://www.sciencedaily.com/&hl=en&gl=US> 

  _____  

Bacteria Antibodies
<http://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/aclk?sa=l&ai=BCoQEJQyqTLzTOpLNcJDZrIUD8P
nWzwG45qvnEsCNtwHA7RoQARgBINKg9AEoCDgAUOry5pQEYOWi5YOsDrIBFHd3dy5zY2llbmNlZG
FpbHkuY29tyAEB2gFJaHR0cDovL3d3dy5zY2llbmNlZGFpbHkuY29tL3ZpZGVvcy8yMDA2LzEwMD
ItdHVybmluZ190cmFzaF9pbnRvX3Bvd2VyLmh0bYACAagDAegDlAXoA5EF6APpAegDDOgDuAP1Aw
AEAEU&num=1&sig=AGiWqtyu-q25rITykg51Cs6ZSxnlkf_Ahg&client=ca-pub-17876726587
59074&adurl=http://www.kpl.com/catalog/categories.cfm%3FCatalog_ID%3D17%26Ca
tegory_ID%3D497> 
Detect salmonella, E.coli, others Specific sensitive detection
www.kpl.com
<http://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/aclk?sa=l&ai=BCoQEJQyqTLzTOpLNcJDZrIUD8P
nWzwG45qvnEsCNtwHA7RoQARgBINKg9AEoCDgAUOry5pQEYOWi5YOsDrIBFHd3dy5zY2llbmNlZG
FpbHkuY29tyAEB2gFJaHR0cDovL3d3dy5zY2llbmNlZGFpbHkuY29tL3ZpZGVvcy8yMDA2LzEwMD
ItdHVybmluZ190cmFzaF9pbnRvX3Bvd2VyLmh0bYACAagDAegDlAXoA5EF6APpAegDDOgDuAP1Aw
AEAEU&num=1&sig=AGiWqtyu-q25rITykg51Cs6ZSxnlkf_Ahg&client=ca-pub-17876726587
59074&adurl=http://www.kpl.com/catalog/categories.cfm%3FCatalog_ID%3D17%26Ca
tegory_ID%3D497> 

Caterpillar Power Plants
<http://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/aclk?sa=l&ai=BJGjnJQyqTLzTOpLNcJDZrIUDpK
6S5wGuvcmjDMCNtwHgmBcQAhgCINKg9AEoCDgAUJOChtX4_____wFg5aLlg6wOsgEUd3d3LnNjaW
VuY2VkYWlseS5jb23IAQHaAUlodHRwOi8vd3d3LnNjaWVuY2VkYWlseS5jb20vdmlkZW9zLzIwMD
YvMTAwMi10dXJuaW5nX3RyYXNoX2ludG9fcG93ZXIuaHRtyAK2h5UMqAMB6AOUBegDkQXoA-kB6A
MM6AO4A_UDAAQARQ&num=2&sig=AGiWqtyVcxDzJNoChkjkCMYk4Jy0EQJI1Q&client=ca-pub-
1787672658759074&adurl=http://www.catpowerplants.com/opt/sweeps.asp%3Fs%3DO3
WQATCM%26src> 
>From 2.8 to Over 100MW, Turnkey Services And Engineered Equipment
www.catpowerplants.com
<http://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/aclk?sa=l&ai=BJGjnJQyqTLzTOpLNcJDZrIUDpK
6S5wGuvcmjDMCNtwHgmBcQAhgCINKg9AEoCDgAUJOChtX4_____wFg5aLlg6wOsgEUd3d3LnNjaW
VuY2VkYWlseS5jb23IAQHaAUlodHRwOi8vd3d3LnNjaWVuY2VkYWlseS5jb20vdmlkZW9zLzIwMD
YvMTAwMi10dXJuaW5nX3RyYXNoX2ludG9fcG93ZXIuaHRtyAK2h5UMqAMB6AOUBegDkQXoA-kB6A
MM6AO4A_UDAAQARQ&num=2&sig=AGiWqtyVcxDzJNoChkjkCMYk4Jy0EQJI1Q&client=ca-pub-
1787672658759074&adurl=http://www.catpowerplants.com/opt/sweeps.asp%3Fs%3DO3
WQATCM%26src> 

Renewable Energy
Deepen your knowledge about the energy sources of the future.
knowledge.allianz.com/energy-future

Green Fuels - Biodiesel
<http://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/aclk?sa=l&ai=B8LTFJQyqTLzTOpLNcJDZrIUD5p
nH1QG6ouvFC8CNtwGA8QQQBBgEINKg9AEoCDgAUMWBlbj______wFg5aLlg6wOsgEUd3d3LnNjaW
VuY2VkYWlseS5jb23IAQHaAUlodHRwOi8vd3d3LnNjaWVuY2VkYWlseS5jb20vdmlkZW9zLzIwMD
YvMTAwMi10dXJuaW5nX3RyYXNoX2ludG9fcG93ZXIuaHRtgAIBqQJVQKDCOJC6PqgDAegDlAXoA5
EF6APpAegDDOgDuAP1AwAEAEU&num=4&sig=AGiWqtzDfYmhQIAUn4uZhP6UNZfgexYNGA&clien
t=ca-pub-1787672658759074&adurl=http://www.greenfuels.co.uk> 
Safe, reliable, automated home and commercial biodiesel processors
www.greenfuels.co.uk
<http://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/aclk?sa=l&ai=B8LTFJQyqTLzTOpLNcJDZrIUD5p
nH1QG6ouvFC8CNtwGA8QQQBBgEINKg9AEoCDgAUMWBlbj______wFg5aLlg6wOsgEUd3d3LnNjaW
VuY2VkYWlseS5jb23IAQHaAUlodHRwOi8vd3d3LnNjaWVuY2VkYWlseS5jb20vdmlkZW9zLzIwMD
YvMTAwMi10dXJuaW5nX3RyYXNoX2ludG9fcG93ZXIuaHRtgAIBqQJVQKDCOJC6PqgDAegDlAXoA5
EF6APpAegDDOgDuAP1AwAEAEU&num=4&sig=AGiWqtzDfYmhQIAUn4uZhP6UNZfgexYNGA&clien
t=ca-pub-1787672658759074&adurl=http://www.greenfuels.co.uk> 

Waste to Energy
<http://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/aclk?sa=l&ai=Bcti8JQyqTLzTOpLNcJDZrIUDuf
WgwAGJlP2KFcCNtwGw6gEQBRgFINKg9AEoCDgAUNmB3ZAFYOWi5YOsDrIBFHd3dy5zY2llbmNlZG
FpbHkuY29tyAEB2gFJaHR0cDovL3d3dy5zY2llbmNlZGFpbHkuY29tL3ZpZGVvcy8yMDA2LzEwMD
ItdHVybmluZ190cmFzaF9pbnRvX3Bvd2VyLmh0bakCVUCgwjiQuj6oAwHoA5QF6AORBegD6QHoAw
zoA7gD9QMABABF&num=5&sig=AGiWqtxR6iIGICyKNV_V_vPXI3PXBoXdog&client=ca-pub-17
87672658759074&adurl=http://www.bauerw2e.com> 
Converting waste to energy Turn waste into fuel
www.bauerw2e.com
<http://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/aclk?sa=l&ai=Bcti8JQyqTLzTOpLNcJDZrIUDuf
WgwAGJlP2KFcCNtwGw6gEQBRgFINKg9AEoCDgAUNmB3ZAFYOWi5YOsDrIBFHd3dy5zY2llbmNlZG
FpbHkuY29tyAEB2gFJaHR0cDovL3d3dy5zY2llbmNlZGFpbHkuY29tL3ZpZGVvcy8yMDA2LzEwMD
ItdHVybmluZ190cmFzaF9pbnRvX3Bvd2VyLmh0bakCVUCgwjiQuj6oAwHoA5QF6AORBegD6QHoAw
zoA7gD9QMABABF&num=5&sig=AGiWqtxR6iIGICyKNV_V_vPXI3PXBoXdog&client=ca-pub-17
87672658759074&adurl=http://www.bauerw2e.com> 

Related Stories

  _____  

New <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/10/041012093158.htm>
'Digester' Converts Garbage To Energy (October 12, 2004) - UC Davis
bioenvironmental engineer Ruihong Zhang sees a vast untapped resource in
lawn clippings, household table scraps and other biodegradable materials:
enough energy to keep the lights burning in ...  >
<http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/10/041012093158.htm> read more

 <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100414083539.htm>
http://www.sciencedaily.com/images/2010/04/100414083539-thumb.jpgNew Super
<http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100414083539.htm>  Bacterium
Doubles Hydrogen Gas Production (April 14, 2010) - Hydrogen gas is today
used primarily for manufacturing chemicals, but a bright future is predicted
for it as a vehicle fuel in combination with fuel cells. In order to produce
hydrogen gas in a way ...  >
<http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100414083539.htm> read more

Synthesizing <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070911155512.htm>
Gas, Making Energy (September 12, 2007) - A way to convert natural gas into
raw materials for the chemical industry and generate power as a by-product
could lead to more environmental benign manufacturing processes. Making
synthesis gas -- a ...  >
<http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070911155512.htm> read more

Sweet <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/11/001122183221.htm>  Smell
Of Success: New UF System Helps Dairy Farms Reduce Odors (November 24, 2000)
- With hundreds or thousands of cows eating, drinking and, well, doing what
cows do naturally, dairy farms have earned a reputation for bad odors.
Combine that with urban sprawl that brings city ...  >
<http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/11/001122183221.htm> read more

Storing <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100505113227.htm>
Green Electricity as Natural Gas (May 5, 2010) - Renewable electricity can
be transformed into a substitute for natural gas. Until now, electricity was
generated from gas. Now, a German-Austrian cooperation wants to go in the
opposite direction. In ...  >
<http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100505113227.htm> read more

Search ScienceD <http://www.sciencedaily.com/subscribe/> 

Mr. Paul Harris, Room S116b, Waite Main Building Faculty of Sciences, The
University of Adelaide, Waite Campus, PMB 1, Glen Osmond SA 5064 Ph    : +61
8 8303 7880      Fax   : +61 8 8303 4386 mailto:paul.harris at adelaide.edu.au
http://www.adelaide.edu.au/directory/paul.harris

CRICOS Provider Number 00123M

This email message is intended only for the addressee(s) and contains
information that may be confidential and/or copyright.  If you are not the
intended recipient please notify the sender by reply email and immediately
delete this email. Use, disclosure or reproduction of this email by anyone
other than the intended recipient(s) is strictly prohibited. No
representation is made that this email or any attachments are free of
viruses. Virus scanning is recommended and is the responsibility of the
recipient.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.bioenergylists.org/pipermail/digestion_lists.bioenergylists.org/attachments/20101006/e767516c/attachment.html>