[Digestion] Small Digester and Rankine Engine Questions

[Gould, Merrill]

Greetings:

I have two questions I am hoping someone has answers for:

1.       Are there small farms with digesters in the United States? When I say small farm I don't mean 2-3 cows, I mean a farm with around 125 dairy cows, which is the average herd size in Michigan. If so, where are they and what has been their experience with their digester? I suspect there probably are no small farms with digesters in the US, but I would really like to know. I have had numerous inquiries from farmers with small farms in West Michigan about putting in a digester on their farm. If my assumption is correct that there are no small farms with digesters, are there farms with comparable numbers of dairy cattle with digesters outside of the United State? If so, where are they and what has their experience been with their digester?

2.       Has anyone had experience using a Rankine engine as part of an energy producing system?

Thanks in advance for any insight you can provide me.

Charles Gould
Michigan State University Extension
West Olive, Michigan

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