[Digestion] "Re: Rex enquiry "

[Bill Rucks]

Hi all,
> 
>> I am going to do something I swore I would never do. Unfortunately, I 
>> just don't have the time and know that the folks on this list know 
>> far more than me and can point me in the right direction.
>> I live in a rural area where we are subject to occasional power cuts 
>> (power lines down mostly due to weather) but, more importantly, our 
>> power bills are rocketing as South Africa races to catch up to the 
>> rest of the world in terms of cost of power. Historically we had paid 
>> off coal fired power plants that gave us the lowest cost of power in 
>> the world. Anyway, now that power costs are rising, own generation is
> becoming an economic necessity.
> 
>> In my area we have a large number of dairy farms milking >500 cows. 
>> These are sizeable operations and the manure they produce is worth
> pursuing.
>> Typically they all have slurry dams and they spread their manure from 
>> time to time (much to our temporary dismay while the odour kills us!).
>> The question is: what is an economical way of producing gas? Bear in 
>> mind, efficiency is not an issue in this case. What we are talking 
>> about is getting gas that can be cleaned up and fed into motors to 
>> produce power. I am looking at using 3 litre petrol engines that will 
>> push out about 50kW tops. So, we are not looking for anything fancy. 
>> A plugflow system would make most sense as they can pump it into the 
>> one end while the processed material leaves the other. Heating 
>> suggestions? What about using the engine exhaust to heat water and 
>> circulate that around the reactor or use it to preheat the incoming 
>> feed? Here I was simply thinking of a double tank with hot water in 
>> the
> outer tank... any other suggestions?
> 
>> The other thing these farmers use a lot of is sileage (chopped maize 
>> that is stored and allowed to ferment). Has anyone had experience 
>> adding some of this to the AD?
> 
>> Looking forward to hearing from you all!
>> Rex

>Greetings Rex
> I can understand your problem and can only offer my personal advice! 
> Electrical energy out of waste is an expensive/time consuming process - I
would look into what I use my energy for and how can I reduce my electrical
requirement!! 
> Unfortunately in this day and age - we look to supplement out currant
energy consumption with renewable energy - ( not that this cannot be done)
!!
> We should be all reducing our energy requirements as much as we can - and
to start log what we use and think how we can reduce, reduce, reduce. 
> Then we create a picture of how much electrical we need!! and the do the
assessment on what energy resourse, human waste -food waste, grass ect  you
have available - through this email list you should understand how much
energy you can get out of your waste!
> I also look at your waste Gas stream - Co2 and Biogas - most dwellings and
building emit allot of gases and we don't know about it !! 
> When you no your total energy potential - both gas and solid - then work
on redirecting storing and converting your waste back to energy !! simple - 
> I have a saying - "Waste is not waste its unutilised energy"
Bill Rucks 


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