Wow, now that is an energy source worth implementing, particularly in developing countries (I especially like the added benefit of eliminating the use of wood as a fuel source, a net environmental gain). The added benefit of using the slurry from the digesters for fertilizer to help grow crops helps quickly recoup the initial investment while providing a long-term sustainable system. Brilliant! Of course, the gas is still being burned, but it is so much better than the alternative.
I could actually see a dual system primarily using gobar gas, but also elements of the biomass burner you'd mentioned previously to provide a full spectrum system (using the fibrous plant waste to generate electricity and a source of biochar). The biochar could be used to retain the soil and moisture beneath the slurry fertilized topsoil to maintain a solidly arable and sustainable system.
Larger scale anaerobic digester systems already exist in the US, primarily in a few agricultural applications and some large-scale municipal sewage treatment plants, but the feasibility of smaller scale operations has recently been identified. The final needed step is for us to get over the ickiness of using the processed human waste sludge into fertilizer or some other usable resource instead of flushing it out to sea or putting into a landfill.
Of course, I still have some slight reservations about introducing hydrocarbons into the atmosphere, but considering that this would be helping offset a far worse system that we currently employ, and that it would be utilizing waste that we would producing anyway, I'm all for it. Sure wind and solar are ideal clean sources, but I'm all for a renewable resource that produces far less waste and pollution than the remaining fossil fuel options, and is much safer than the current nuclear power generation.
FellOnEarth
Temecula, CA
April 2006
JUL 30, 2011 08:20 PM