Hi all, > >> I am going to do something I swore I would never do. Unfortunately, I >> just don't have the time and know that the folks on this list know >> far more than me and can point me in the right direction. >> I live in a rural area where we are subject to occasional power cuts >> (power lines down mostly due to weather) but, more importantly, our >> power bills are rocketing as South Africa races to catch up to the >> rest of the world in terms of cost of power. Historically we had paid >> off coal fired power plants that gave us the lowest cost of power in >> the world. Anyway, now that power costs are rising, own generation is > becoming an economic necessity. > >> In my area we have a large number of dairy farms milking >500 cows. >> These are sizeable operations and the manure they produce is worth > pursuing. >> Typically they all have slurry dams and they spread their manure from >> time to time (much to our temporary dismay while the odour kills us!). >> The question is: what is an economical way of producing gas? Bear in >> mind, efficiency is not an issue in this case. What we are talking >> about is getting gas that can be cleaned up and fed into motors to >> produce power. I am looking at using 3 litre petrol engines that will >> push out about 50kW tops. So, we are not looking for anything fancy. >> A plugflow system would make most sense as they can pump it into the >> one end while the processed material leaves the other. Heating >> suggestions? What about using the engine exhaust to heat water and >> circulate that around the reactor or use it to preheat the incoming >> feed? Here I was simply thinking of a double tank with hot water in >> the > outer tank... any other suggestions? > >> The other thing these farmers use a lot of is sileage (chopped maize >> that is stored and allowed to ferment). Has anyone had experience >> adding some of this to the AD? > >> Looking forward to hearing from you all! >> Rex
>Greetings Rex > I can understand your problem and can only offer my personal advice! > Electrical energy out of waste is an expensive/time consuming process - I would look into what I use my energy for and how can I reduce my electrical requirement!! > Unfortunately in this day and age - we look to supplement out currant energy consumption with renewable energy - ( not that this cannot be done) !! > We should be all reducing our energy requirements as much as we can - and to start log what we use and think how we can reduce, reduce, reduce. > Then we create a picture of how much electrical we need!! and the do the assessment on what energy resourse, human waste -food waste, grass ect you have available - through this email list you should understand how much energy you can get out of your waste! > I also look at your waste Gas stream - Co2 and Biogas - most dwellings and building emit allot of gases and we don't know about it !! > When you no your total energy potential - both gas and solid - then work on redirecting storing and converting your waste back to energy !! simple - > I have a saying - "Waste is not waste its unutilised energy" Bill Rucks
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