Biogas digesters hold a high level of importance for all our futures as the only way to turn the tide on global emissions from a huge range of waste organic materials. Society is blinded by the opportunities of solar energy, wave and wind power, but so far has failed to see that unless the rising quantities of argnic waste we produce are disposed of without decomposing to produce methane a huge problem remains. As a result of that failure a very large and growing greenhouse gas emission load will remain and we can never become truly sustainable, as things are now, and future generations are doomed.
We are now using our natural gas (carbonaceous fuel) resources up at a huge rate. These were formed from the fossilized remains of plants and animals in a process that took millions of years.
Such resources do not "grow back" in a time scale that is meaningful for humans. Natural gas is a fossil fuel that was created eons ago by the anaerobic decomposition of organic materials. It is often found in association with oil and coal. It will deplete without an adequate replacement other than biogas, so we had better get on with it and improve our ability to produce biogas and sngas (from gasification) - its only real replacement other than converting other carbonaceous fuels into gas fuels!
Cooking is best with with clean-burning gas, rather than smoky wood. Introducing gas cooking improves respiratory health and reduces the pressure on local fuelwood. In contrast, cooking on open fires emits gases that endanger people's health and contributes unnecessarily to global warming.
The German government saw the potential for biogas a number of years ago and introduced incentives to encourage biogas and biofuel production. German technology companies has a head start over the US, and the UK. Based on their experience, acquired over a number of years in partnership with their German customers, they have built a formidable record in biogas digestion.
The US should welcome these experts into the US. They do say that they want to share their expertise in other markets.
According to reports available on the internet they already have numerous projects and installations completed in Russia, Thailand, England, France, Spain and Turkey, and this they consider to be just the beginning.
It is stated in a recent report available on the worldwide web, that biogas even offers the possibility of stepping towards energy security for rural and even peri-urban communities in some areas. However, the converse is certainly true, and there is no energy security for any nation now in depending on imports of natural gas, whereas literally home-grown biogas is right on our doorstep, and as secure a supply as can be imagined.
There are two great sites where you can find out more about this developing alternative energy source and those are the electricity from methane digester web page and the biogas digestion web site. Take a look now!
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