Saturday, December 30, 2006

Anaerobic Digestion Blog Gets FeedBlitz Newsletter Launch on Web Site

From your Webmaster and Blogger. We have a dozen subscribers already! This is very pleasing because this blog has not yet been officially launched. Thank you all for joining and thank you for your interest in this project.

We are hoping that we will now get an even greater rate of sign-ups because the Newsletter of this Blog now has a subscription panel on the Home page, in addition to the previous Waster's blog subscription panel.

By the way: We are always looking for news and new content. If you have a news item, press release, article, or feed that you think we should add to this blog and/or the Anaerobic Digestion Community web site (Anaerobic-Digestion.com) email it to us at this email address:
info@anaerobic-digestion.com.

The more that we generate our own community links, the more this project will grow.

We are convinced that despite the excellent work of bodies, such as the Renewable Energy Association, do for anaerobic digestion, there is a real demand for an informal community like this one centred around Anaerobic-Digestion.com.

Happy New Year.

Steve Last

Saturday, September 16, 2006

All Anaerobic Digestion Plants must comply with the ATEX Regulations (DSEAR - UK)

This is an advertisement; - but if any reader's company (EU based) has yet to comply it could avoid them being prosecuted later.

ATEX (DSEAR UK) Appplies to Anaerobic Digestion Plants: Since June 2006 the ATEX and and UK's Dangerous Substance & Explosive Atmosphere Regulations have placed requirements on all AD plant operators. It is the Employer's duty to ensure compliance.

Here is an important extract taken from the Statutory Instrument:-

Places where explosive atmospheres may occur
7. - (1) Every employer shall classify places at the workplace where an explosive atmosphere may occur into hazardous or non-hazardous places in accordance with paragraph 1 of Schedule 2 and shall classify those places so classified as hazardous into zones in accordance with paragraph 2 of that Schedule; and that Schedule shall have effect subject to the notes at the end of that Schedule.
(2) The employer shall ensure that the requirements specified in Schedule 3 are applied to equipment and protective systems in the places classified as hazardous pursuant to paragraph (1).
(3) Where necessary, places classified as hazardous pursuant to paragraph (1) shall be marked by the employer with signs at their points of entry in accordance with Schedule 4.
(4) Before a workplace containing places classified as hazardous pursuant to paragraph (1) is used for the first time, the employer shall ensure that its overall explosion safety is verified by a person who is competent in the field of explosion protection as a result of his experience or any professional training or both.
(5) The employer shall ensure that appropriate work clothing which does not give rise to electrostatic discharges is provided for use in places classified as hazardous pursuant to paragraph (1).
(6) This regulation is subject to the transitional provisions in regulation 17(1) to (3).

Is you organisation compliant?

IPPTS Associates have all necessary explosion protection experience, and can assist with compliance training, DSEAR explosion risk reviews, produce Explosion Protection Docuements, and gernally assist with ATEX (DSEAR UK) compliance issues. In fact they have been busy doing this work for many, mostly Local Authority, but also commercial clients, since early this year, for existing landfill sites.

Visit Enviros employee web site www.atexanddsear.co.uk for more information and contact Enviros for any further information needed via the ATEX AND DSEAR Contact Page.

Friday, August 18, 2006

Anaerobic Digestion Just Got a News Blog!

This was the first post to our New AD Blog, about all the new developments beginning to build up a head of steam to drive AD into the main stream as a waste disposal method, a waste processing method, an energy generation method, and a provider of waste derived products from the liquid and fibrous products of AD Processes.

The Blog will be featured as the new News Source on our web site www.anaerobic-digestion.com .

More about Anaerobic Digestion (which we said at the time):

Anaerobic Digestion (AD): Is an alternative to composting for the biological treatment of waste.

AD is a type of biological decomposition equivalent to composting but is carried out in the absence of air (most importantly - no oxygen) as anaerobic decomposition. The main products from this degradation process are a solid residue called digestate, a liquid fraction containing water and nutrients, and biogas, which is a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide, which offers benefits in terms of energy production.

AD can be used to treat biodegradable wastes where feedstocks are clean, as well as the recovery and stabilisation of biodegradable waste from contaminated sources.

The microbiological processes of AD will be discussed in this blog, plus feedstocks, markets, developments and News.

AD for energy and new ides for the "carbon economy" (the intermediate level between fossil fuels and the hydrogen economy so often talked about) as in biofuel production (methanation) will also feature very strongly in our reporting.

The useful products of the process will be discussed together with the effluents and emissions, which need to be managed.

If you have any aspects of Anaerobic digestion that you would like us to cover email us with your ideas.

In December 2006 we said:

AD is Now Viable Economically in Europe

Anaerobic Digestion is both a waste treatment technology and a highly sustainable energy technology. Recent rises in energy costs, coupled with EU member state incentives, and waste management policy, now mean that economic viability has been attained.

I have written an article and Press Release about this, following my particpation in the recent methane to markets DEFRA Workshop "AD Barriers and Opportunities for the Agricultural Sector", held in Wiltshire UK, two weeks ago.

The article explains how this technology can also provide a politically secure energy supply, and argues that there should be more fiscal assistance to promote Anaerobic Digestion.

Read our article about Anaerobic Digestion technology is Now Economically Viable in Europe, and how it can treat waste AND alleviate climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions at the Anaerobic Digestion web site.

Our Blog Subscribers Grow!

The following is a copy of our 50 member milestone blog posting, published on 11 April 2014:

Well done everyone. I am amazed! We've now reached 50 Newsletter subscribers with almost one a day joining over the past week - despite the normal slowdown over the Easter Holiday.

When we started the Anaerobic Digestion .Com web site we thought it such a specialist subject that we would not receive many visits - and at first we recieved very few visitors, however, nowadays with an average of 40 unique visitors daily, viewing one hundred to two hundred or more pages daily our visitor rate is climbing continually.

Of course this pales into insignificance against the bigger sites of the web! However, it does show that awareness of Anaerobic Digestion is continually growing.

With the US now "going green" I would predict bigger subscriber increases are to come. Although we are a UK based site three quarters of our traffic has always been from the US.

Oh! and a big welocme to all our new and recent subscribers. The more the merrier, of course, and the more that we can describe the site as a community.

We have been considering putting out a questionnaire to find out more about our subscriber interests and profile, in the weeks to come. So, look out for that. Meanwhile, we hope that you continue to find the AD news items we post to be interesting.

The AD Forum [Now closed.]

The following post was published on 24 November 2014:

You may have noticed that things have been quieter than usual on the Anaerobic News Blog this last two weeks.

That's because your blogger has been away on business in Malaysia and then South Africa, but I am back now and will resume the normal posting (OK - rather haphazard!) frequency of posts and emails.

For those of you awaiting response to emails, I hope to get replies out on the backlog by the middle of this week.

To the person who followed up his initial email, with another titled; "Is this email address working?" Yes, it is (it was me that was not working - at least not on the Anaerobic Digestion web site email address) and I'll reply soon!

I am also planning to launch a new free Anaerobic-Digestion.Com Forum for the AD Community, hoping that this will reduce emails to me by people submitting to the Forum, especially if other Forum Members will join in and assist with giving answers to those submitting questions.