Bad News for Agricultural Use of Anaerobic Digestion in Agriculture - DEFRA 2005 Report is Discussed

New Web Page about the Agricultural Use of Anaerobic Digestion for Livestock Manures and Slurries

The Anaerobic Digestion.Com web site has [so far] been short on information on Agricultural AD. This actually only reflects the position in the UK which had more on-farm AD units in operation during the mid-1990s than it does now.

Probably the most authoritative recent study on the viability of anaerobic digestion is the report prepared for the Sustainable Agriculture Strategy Division of the United Kingdom Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

This is not a new report as it was published in October 2005, however, we do think it worth studying for anyone interested in utilising this abundant source of on-farm AD and Centralised Anaerobic Digestion (CAD) feedstock.

The report is really quite heavily negative about the economic vialbility of this form of AD, under the then, and current, regime in which the UK government is not providing direct financial support for AD.We would argue that:-Our view at Anaerobic-Digestion.Com is that there is a very good case for additional government investment in on-farm AD.

There is a significant win to be found from the reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, and the necessary £143 lifetime costs estimated for the first twenty plants in this report would surely deliver big bonuses in the development of the technology. If done well this investment would act as the seed corn for the mature development of the Anaerobic Digestion industry at which time costs would surely plummet.

Were we not at a similar stage with wind turbines no more than ten years ago?Surely many of us can remember that wind turbine rotor blade failures featured heavily in the news. The doubters were saying that the reliability problems being experienced in that industry at the time were close to insoluble for such highly stressed and massive blades.

Yet now who even mentions such problems?

The parallels are all around us which show us the benefits of strategic investment and the potential in Anaerobic Digestion. Let us see some leadership from our politicians who should by now realise that the public demand for action on carbon emissions is high.

The public also increasingly want to buy renewable power for their own domestic use, and so the provision of financial incentives for Anaerobic Digestion would help in this and other many ways.

Visit our new web page on the Agricultural Use of Anaerobic Digestion here.

Anaerobic Digestion Can Give a High Investment Return, Operator Claims

Here is a summary of a news item put out during the autumn last year (2006), for any that have not heard of this:-

The operator of one of the first full-scale anaerobic digestion plants to treat household waste in the UK has revealed a "strong economic return" for its initial investment.

Greenfinch Ltd, which opened its plant in South Shropshire in mid-2006, has stated that that plants processing 15,000 tonnes a year could cost in the region of GB Pounds 2.2 million to set up, but these can be profitable.

The company's CEO, Michael Chesshire, revealed to an audience in London that every year an anaerobic digestion plant like his can bring in earnings of GB Pounds 300,000 for electricity generated from biogas as well as GB Pounds 675,000 in gate fees for taking in these wastes.

The news was revealed to delegates of a Composting Association seminar in South London, and Michael Chesshire went further to say; "There is a general misunderstanding in the waste industry over the cost, size and nature of anaerobic digestion. Not only is profitability possible, returns can be strong.

A GB Pounds 2.2 million plant, which takes 15,000 tonnes of waste a year, costs only GB Pounds 350,000 a year to operate.

Michael Chesshire the CEO of Greenfinch, the company which designed, and managed the construction stage of the DEFRA/WRAP funded full-scale household green waste/food waste anaerobic digestion plant now operating in South Shropshire (UK) as a technology demonstration project, said that there are also potential uses for the products of the process which if sold can further improve profitability.

Anaerobic Digestion Found to Hold Many Advantages to Agriculture

As the US nation looks to agriculture for renewable fuels from crops and other sources, many researchers are realizing that there are developing countries such as China and India which have already have developed a manure management system that produces energy, saves valuable nutrients for fertilizer, and provides great benefits in improved sanitation health and bio-security for those using it.

It has even been in use on some farms in the US, although until energy prices began to rise recently it was not even close to being economically viable.

That system is anaerobic digestion, and furthermore it can cut greenhouse gas emissions and stops offensive odours

Without proper management, animal manure can get into groundwater supplies, and odour problems can produce a nuisance for nearby residents, and this is happening more frequently as dairy and pig farm sizes grow and urban sprawl moves into farmland.

University of Florida researchers say that,

The key to our waste management system is a natural biological process called anaerobic digestion that relies on microorganisms to transform animal manure into methane gas.

Anaerobic digesters, which process waste under oxygen-free conditions, are different than conventional aerobic systems that use oxygen to treat the waste. Anaerobic digesters can, the same researchers suggest, process five to 10 times more waste than aerobic systems. Because the waste is enclosed to keep oxygen out, anaerobic digestion keeps odors in.

With anaerobic digestion, the methane produced can be used to heat water or generate electricity, eliminating greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming. To demonstrate the technology at a working dairy farm, a large-scale anaerobic digester at University of Florida's 500-cow Dairy Research Unit in Hague, Florida is now generating biogas from manure flushed from animal barns and milking parlors.

The patented waste treatment technology is being made available for licensing by University of Florida's Office of Technology Licensing.

About 40 cubic feet of methane per day can be produced from the waste of each dairy cow, these researchers estimate.

The anaerobic digester processes manure from the large volumes of water used to flush waste from animal holding areas at the dairy. Because manure flushed from these areas is so diluted by water, only two types of anaerobic digesters are practical for dairies – covered lagoons and fixed-film digesters, researchers.

In covered lagoons, which are less efficient than fixed-film anaerobic digesters, the digestive bacteria float around, making only random contact with the manure particle

, this problem is not seen in fixed-film reactors it is claimed.

Generally, the fixed-film design is suitable for any livestock manure that is diluted with water for transport or processing, such as dairy and swine waste.

First, by capturing biogas, anaerobic digestion can reduce natural emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Second, when anaerobic digestion produces renewable fuel to replace fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas, production of carbon dioxide from burning
those fossil fuels is avoided.

The anaerobic digester also lowers the levels of pathogens; starvation and competition with other microorganisms help kill pathogens that might be in the manure.

Just like many researchers across many countries, the potential for anaerobic digestion to solve several major problems, is remarkable.

Could we really have the possibility of developing a sustainable option for dairies and other livestock operations that produces renewable energy and protects the environment? Many think so, and governments and investors will do well to look seriously at encouraging the further development of anaerobic digestion technology.

Based upon an article by University of Florida, published February 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

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.

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.