Putting biogas to work
NEW ZEALAND - Many farmers have stood next to their dairy effluent ponds and watched the biogas bubble up and disappear into the air.
2 February 2007
1 minute read
"We all know this is a wasted resource, but hardly anyone uses it," says Dr Andy Shilton, director of Massey University's Centre for Environmental Engineering and Technology.
Shilton is enthusiastic about using the biogas resource to lower on-farm energy costs.
He leads the Innovative Anaerobic Pond Design – a group of Massey University researchers and collaborators, which includes Rupert Craggs, of the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, and Graeme Attwood, of AgResearch.
The group has two-year Dairy InSight "innovation funding" of $395,000 to design and build a treatment system to capture and use the biogas from effluent treatment ponds.
"There is a real opportunity to make New Zealand's dairy sheds energy self-sufficient by harnessing the energy potential (of) the cow manure," Shilton says.
At the moment, most waste goes back on the land as manure fertiliser. But its energy potential could be captured better and used to run dairy sheds.
"There's nothing new about the idea of making biogas from manure," says Shilton.
"The trick, however, is developing a practical and efficient system that farmers would realistically invest in and use."
The project has two levels. The first involves using best international practice to develop a smart but simple optimised anaerobic pond.
Source: Stuff.co.nz
