Biogas: Energy from waste.

In Russia, half of the year the street temperature is lower than in your refrigerator. So some of our farmers use the gas produced from extremely simple installation like this one:

It’s just a hole in the ground, hermetically sealed by sheet iron or concrete, etc. They throw in farm animal manure, add grass and etc. and seal it with the hermetic cap. That’s all. After a few days without air a gas is produced. And removed, the manure is still an excellent fertilizer. In Dominica you can use bananas, which are chemically composed to produce gas well.

Presently in Europe, the price of such gas supplied from Russia, is lower than oil. Here is the picture of German industrial bioreactors for biogas production. It’s not a primitive hole, but a solid modern production.

These installations are highly automated: Each is managed by two operators for only two hours a day. They’re particularly effective in the summer, because the heat increases the fermentation rate. Dominica has no cold weather, therefore this old Chinese technology will even better than for us. Disassembled installations are shipped in standard containers.

In addition to gas for power station, the installation provides valuable fertilizer.

Biogas mass production installation using silage

A cubic meter (35.3 cubic feet) of biogas in this generator can produce 2K Watt-hours of electricity.

Silage, especially corn, has a very high ability to generate biogas. Corn (maize) is called “the power culture” now.

The total electricity production per hectare of corn from two harvests – could be about 80 megawatts. To supply a 2.5 megawatt power station, it would be necessary to sow and gather the area of about 100 hectares (250 acres). If we also use other components, the sowed areas would be even smaller.

Combined Wood Gas/Biogas Installation

An installation can combine both technologies pyrolysis (decomposition or transformation of a compound caused by heat) and bioreactor in one compact mobile installation. See www.compulenta.ru

The English Origin