Could you harness energy from...

Lando Griffin

With thousands of slatted sheds around Ireland and each containing high levels of methane, I am wondering if there could be a way to harness this gas into energy just like they do the dumps.

taram

I assume to have it comfortable and airy for the cattle they'd all have open sides or air circulating fans, hence the methane also would escape?

edwinkane

taram wrote: »

I assume to have it comfortable and airy for the cattle they'd all have open sides or air circulating fans, hence the methane also would escape?

While it's probably possible to collect the methane, the problem is to then find a way to use it. In the war, cars had balloons full of methane on the roof which supplied the engine as a fuel. I remember seeing a more recent article about a pig farmer in, I think, Wales who used the gas collected from his pig slurry to power his car. While the fumes may be more aromatic than petrol or diesel, wouldn't it be wonderful if farmers could utilise the gas from their slurry in this way, especially if they can find a way of putting it into a tank rather than in a balloon.

Antiquo

This is being done on a regular basis in the US on factory farms cattle and pigs.

The slurry is piped into fermentation tanks, methane then extracted cleaned and used in large converted diesel engines to produce electricity for the farm. Scale is obviously the factor and that's why it's so prevelant in the US but there are some UK farms also doing it.

Waste water is filtered off and solid waste is used for fertiliser.

WeeBushy

Top Gear did a thing on this, they tried to power their car with methane. I know its hardly scientific, but was interesting all the same. I'll try and find it.

IIRC it wasn't very succcessful, but Aniquo is right, it is done in the US. I think I remember talking to a lecturer about this before and he said that we do not have big enough and intensive enough farms in Ireland for this to be a viable option, however.

EDIT: Did a quick search and found some interesting papers on the matter. I attached one, which is quite good. However they do say that economy of scale is an issue, and that's in the US, so it would be even more prohibitive in Ireland.

Interesting exert from the conclusion of the paper:

One conclusion of this analysis is that farm-based digesters are a multifaceted technology that offers a range of benefits. The benefits tend to appeal to different policy constituencies, which can become confusing. Digesters are a source of renewable energy. They destroy methane, a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming. Future digester installations can help address the Nation’s energy situation, but their contribution is likely to be small. Odor concerns have been the main motivation for many of the existing digesters.

Antiquo

WeeBushy wrote: »

...
EDIT: However they do say that economy of scale is an issue, and that's in the US, so it would be even more prohibitive in Ireland.
...

I bet they never even thought of looking at the amount produced from the Dail.

dathi

the camphill community in ballytobin, callan ,co. kilkenny have a digester. they use the gas to heat the buildings in the community. think there is a bit on there web page about it

Amateurish

Hey there, yes it can be done and it need not even be high tech. I know of communities somewhere in asia which pretty much fill a hole in the groung with crap, cover it, let it ferment and pipe the gas to a simple burner thing. The gas bubbling up from a swamp is the same stuff. We already use biogas from some refuse sites. Sorry dont have links but might go looking if you like.
There is a farmer in wesht limerick with a sexy little anaeobic digester, he runs a 200kw generator off it for around 12-14 hrs a day. (At a guess he has 200 cows and 2000 chickens...) so his fuel is dairy farm slurry and chicken litter. There is very little smell. Digestion is in insulated tanks and the burned methane doesnt smell at all. I'm told the smell from the effluent is much less 'stinking' than good old fashioned slurry.
The effluent/sludge goes back onto the same land the slurry would have been spread on anyway. Its a fairly simple operation if animal by products aren't used.

Lando Griffin

Well it looks like you need a good volumn before this becomes a viable idea.
Maybe I am thinking outside the box here or could the slurry be collected from these tanks and brought to a processing plant that way you would have access to hundreds of farms.
As they do in the states the waste fertilizer be reused by the donating farmers and spread on the land.