10 Ways to Make Money from Biogas Plants

The anaerobic digestion process provides at least 10 ways to make money from Biogas Plant, that's why it is such an amazing asset to the owners and operators of biogas plants. Once a farmer, for example, gets his or her own biogas plant up and running they soon realise that a digester is so much more than just a producer of renewable energy.

There is a great danger that in this age of decarbonisation progress, the humble AD process is being overlooked by many who seek to reduce their carbon footprint, and that it fails to get the publicity it deserves.

That's why we compiled a list of them, published the video provided below, and wrote this article.

 

Each of the following different income streams provided below, can contribute to the economics of individual digester projects, including farm digesters.

Some income methods apply to all digester installations, while others are a matter of choice, or determined by the size or location, of the farm. Some may not be possible for certain waste types, and as this list is for the United Kingdom, some of these income streams may not be available in your country. The ways in which financial benefit is possible, fall essentially into two categories.

Income Created from the By-products of Anaerobic Digestion

First, there are the savings or direct income created by the by-products, including:
1) savings, on the cost of artificial fertilisers for the farm itself, when a farm uses its own digestate as a fertiliser on their own land
2) sales of digested materials, for use as fertiliser, by other nearby farms
3) sale of fibre or finished compost, either through a regional marketing organisation, or by distribution locally
4) savings in on-farm energy costs, through the use of gas for heating and cooking
5) the sale of electricity, or biogas, either locally or through the national grids, and
6) the sale of spare heat, from CHP units for use in heating buildings or greenhouses, for example.

Income Created from Payments and Subsidies for Reducing Environmental Problems

Second, there are payments and subsidies, of one kind or another, for reducing environmental problems which affect the whole community. These payments could include:
1) gate fees for processing other organic wastes, such as source-separated domestic food waste or garden waste or possibly sludge from small sewage works
2) incentives for producing renewable energy, either through the Renewable Heat Initiative or Feed-in-Tariffs, (also known as FiTs), for electricity generation, and
3) payments for overall reductions in greenhouse gas emissions
4) sometimes there may even be payments made by governments to encourage farmers to use anaerobic digestion as a way to reduce the burden of farmyard contamination on local watercourses, in areas of intensive dairy farming.

Anaerobic Digestion Cleans Up Bathing Beaches

In the early 2000s there were even AD project grants given to some farmers close to bathing beaches in Scotland’s Solway Firth, so that biogas plants were built in an area where dairy farmyard, summer storm-water slurry run-off, was jeopardising the tourist industry.
 On those local beaches, EU bathing beach water quality in the period after after heavy summer storms, was significantly improved, by installing anaerobic digestion plants. 

Our conclusion is that: 

Establishing effective ways of using all the by-products of a biogas plant, and marketing them in the best manner for maximised income, can raise the income from biogas plants substantially.

A number of forms of government funding (subsidies) are available to help ensure a robust economic viability for not only farm biogas plants, but also community biogas projects, and municipal waste-collection authority involvement in the industry.

Governments have been subsidising biogas production, but generally they need to focus the provision of this money more directly on the environmental benefits of each AD Facility.

By doing that, the contribution of public funds can be best used, to help encourage use of the biogas process in ways which meet the needs of small, as well as larger farms.

In particular, it is important to bring together as many as possible of these income streams, for each anaerobic digestion plant.

Good News for Anaerobic Digestion

The good news is that, if this is done, many more farmers, on many more farms, should be able to find it possible to profitably install many more biogas digesters.

Thank you for watching our video presentation (above), and reading this article, we hope you found it useful. You may like to also watch our video on how to raise biogas yield, as another way to improve the income from existing anaerobic digestion plants. via Anaerobic-digestion.com/make-money-from-farm-biogas-plants/

How to Make Compost Using the Digested Fibre from Biogas Plants

A Guide to Making Compost from the Digested Fibre from Biogas Plants

Farms that make biogas using anaerobic digesters, can gain additional income from making and marketing their own compost products.

They can do this by using simple, but effective production methods based on their existing resources.

The simplest method is to use the windrow composting method.

The Windrow Composting Method

To do this the biogas plant operator simply heaps digested anaerobic digestion plant fibre in rows either out in the open or under cover, for better water content control in hot countries.

It is turned over regularly with the shovel on a tractor, or with dedicated windrow turning machines.

This usually takes several months during which the water content and activity is measured for every batch, and until it becomes stable enough for bagging.

This process can be accelerated if the digested fibre for compost making is placed in a composting tunnel, and subjected to processing at a higher controlled temperature in a forced-air batch system.

Effectively, the digester output of fibre is loaded into large purpose-built bins, or compost tunnels, which have floors with perforated concrete slats inserted into them.

Biogas Digestate Maturation in a "Composting Tunnel"

Pre-warmed air is blown by a compressor into a chamber below the slatted floor, and up through the compost.

The warm conditions and abundant airflow speeds up the work of the bacteria and other organisms, which perform the composting process.

Later, once the compost is no longer active, it cools down cool from the high level of bacterial activity when earlier-on the aerobic bacteria create a considerable amount of heat.

In the compost tunnel, or bin method, the digestate fibre is ready to be taken out within a few weeks and is again heaped up for a further few weeks, to mature.

The composted tilth is then passed through a soil-shredder, to make it more friable, and for retail sales, it is usually bagged.

Worthwhile Additional Biogas Plant Income

This can often achieve a worthwhile added biogas plant income.

Sales are often made by selling this compost at the farm gate or through local garden centres.

However, experts have pointed out that a problem would occur if large numbers of individual farmers with digesters were to begin making and selling compost in the same area.

The Problem of Local Compost Market Saturation

In that area, local markets would soon become glutted.

There is no doubt that major retailers, or landscaping contractors, could become large buyers for this compost.

Unfortunately, the scale at which major retailers or landscaping contractors wish to work, to do this at an economic price, is so large that few individual farmers are able to meet the quantity requirements.

Biogas expert Jonathan Letcher, in his Farm Digesters Book, and others have therefore proposed that to avoid this problem compost producers should work together to market their fibre compost.

That way they could produce enough composted fibre material, to meet the demands of major retailers, and landscaping contractors.

Unfortunately, many UK farmers who operate their own digesters reportedly feel they have neither the experience, the capital, nor time to set up their own compost-making business at all.

Digested fibre, could be a very useful resource if fully used and composted.

Making Compost from the Digested Fibre from Biogas Plants Improves Anaerobic Digestion System Sustainability

By processing and using it,  the sustainability of the anaerobic digestion systems it would markedly be raised.

Large-scale use of aerobic-composting, to finish converting the biogas digestate fibre, into a high-quality product, would make it the great soil-enhancing material, it could be used throughout many countries.

Nevertheless, if digested fibre is to achieve its full potential, both in helping many more farms to afford a digester,

Local production by individual farms will never be big enough producers enough to break into this market.