Largest Anerobic Digestor / Biogas Generation Facility Announced

Construction has begun on the world's largest multi-digestor biogas production and gas conditioning facility near Stephenville, TX.  The facility will produce the equivalent of 12,700 gallons per day of heating oil.  The gas is to be treated and compressed to produce and deliver about 2.7 million cubic ft/day of pipeline-grade methane, with a heating value of 650 BTU/cubic ft, that will be sold as a commodity to a nearby natural gas pipeline.  The facility will have eight 916,000-gallon degestors, sufficient to process the manure from up to 10,000 cows.

Microgy holds an exclusive license in North America for the development and deployment of a proprietary anaerobic digestion technology, which transforms manure and food industry waste into methane-rich biogas that can be used to generate electricity or thermal energy, or refined to pipeline-grade methane for sale as a commodity.

Their process produces three products:

• Biogas containing 60%-70% methane that can be used for electrical generation, pipeline gas or industrial gas for internal use or use by a nearby industry.
• Liquids from the digestor are reduced in volume compared to untreated manure.  Their use as fertilizer is enhanced due to more concentrated constituents and reduced weed seed.
• The remaining solids from the digestor are separated from the manure slurry with a screw press for use as beddings, mulches and compost.

In addition to producing a high yield of methane the digestor aids in reducing environmental issues normally associated with manure disposal.

• Offensive and environmentally undesirable gases are captured.
• Run-off and other water quality issues are minimized.
• The digestion process kills weed seeds and pathogens.
• Odors are reduced up to 95%.
• Digestion assists regulatory compliance.

The potential market is large with 238,000 animal feeding operations in the US including 1,200 large (greater than 1000 head of cattle) dairy animal feeding operations.  Their technology is currently believed to be applicable to farms having greater than 1000 head of cattle, although further development of the process may reduce that number.

An operating facility, at Five Star Dairy, Elk Mound, WI, was commissioned on June 22, 2005 and produces 775 kWh of electricity, using a Waukesha internal combustion engine, which is sold to the local utility.  The Five Star Dairy facility adds a 10% "substrate" of used cooking oil and animal fats to the digestor which boosts the methane content of the gas.  The digestor, with a three week retention time, is kept at 120 F by a boiler fueled by a portion of the biogas that it produces. I assume this is typical of Microgy facilities.  Microgy and Dairyland Power Cooperative, the utility that buys the electricity and owns the generator, would like to generate as much as 25 MW of electricity from animal waste-to-power systems in their distribution area.  Three other projects with Dairyland are currently underway and two more are scheduled to commence construction later this year.  Five other farms in other regions have also signed development agreements with Microgy.

A previous post discussed a competitive process.

Resources:

Environmental Power Corporation/Microgy Inc., Portsmouth, NH
Five Star Dairy Brochure

Technocrati tags: biofuels, methane, anerobic digestion, renewable energy

Comments

[S. Ram Shrivastava]

We have completed over 20 large industrial wastewater anaerobic digesters in India using fixed film technologies. We congratulate Microgy in establishing large digesters in USA to generate green power.
Since a large number of small farms have manure lagoons in New York State, there is also a need for lagoon retrofit technologies to convert the lagoons into biogas generating digesters at an affordable price and help these farmers sustain as a business. We are in process to demonstrate such a technology for smaller applications.
For more information on sustainable communities please go to http://sustainablecommunities.blogspot.com

[Abhijit Gorai]

i need more information about generation power by useing anerobic digester & house hold waste

[William Mezzullo]

Is this still the largest AD plant in the world? Or have there been others. I am researching on AD plants in England and am very interested in contacting anyone within this field. My email address is w.g.mezzullo@bath.ac.uk

[William Mezzullo]

Is this still the largest AD plant in the world? Or have there been others. I am researching on AD plants in England and am very interested in contacting anyone within this field. My email address is w.g.mezzullo@bath.ac.uk

[Scxott A ALF]

Try Huckabay Ridge as a possible reference of current value or relation to your research.

[Scott A ALF]

Address correction of name requested.

[ChristopherHettiarachchi]

What are the factors that enhance the production of methane in an anaerobic bioreactor?

My E mail address is chrishetti@hotmail.com

[Kit P]

Here is a link:
http://www.environmentalpower.com/companies/microgy/

However, Microgy is not too open with what they do which is okay when it comes to trade secrets that everyone in the trade know. To enhance, methane production temperature can be increased and two phase digestion can be used where pH is controlled at different levels in separate digestors.

[francisco fábregas giné]

I thank you for giving me an idea of method of using digestors for a farm of 2400 sows.

[Kit P.]

@FFG

Anaerobic digesters work for pigs and chickens too. There are several examples of on farm operations that date back to the early 80s in the US. This demonstrates that the technology works when the farm operator makes the effort to understand the care and feeding of the living micro organisms inside the tanks. This is not a trivial task. There is an entire branch of engineering that specializes in waste water treatment.

Making electricity is also not a trivial task. There is an entire branch of engineering that specializes in making electricity.

Unfortunately, there is a long list of failed projects for those who did not anticipate and overcome the barriers. Clearly, anaerobic digesters are a very good engineering choice for increasing profits by converting waste to energy while conserving nutrients. The first step is understanding the level of cooperation of your local utility. It is amazing how the attitude toward renewable energy varies from utility to utility and within the utility.

If there is a problem with anaerobic digesters it is that it involves multiple stake holders who must be sold on the idea that it benefits them.

[DR. M. Afzal]

What will be the approximate cost of facility for 10,000dairy cows/buffaloes where sweet water is limited?
Is it commercially viable project?