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12-24 months of heat from compost

 
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I recently ran across this video on a Biomeiler system for capturing and transporting heat from compost - pretty intriguing.
 
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just bumping so more people might see this.I think it is a great idea given resources and some tweaking .
 
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Great video. I have seen this before but never so well explained. Thanks.
 
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Very interesting. I have read a lot about the Jean Pain technique that these Biomiellers are based on. I was under the impression that the wood chips needed to be shredded smaller than this in order for an extended breakdown. Perhaps the constant nutrient liquid flow is enough to keep the process ripping along. Very cool. I'm really glad to see this.
 
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Any idea what the larger yellow pipe is that is in the bottom of the pile on the plastic before they start adding woody debris?
 
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Roberto pokachinni wrote:Any idea what the larger yellow pipe is that is in the bottom of the pile on the plastic before they start adding woody debris?


looked to me to be the drainage pipe from the bottom of the pile that they were pumping back to the top
 
Roberto pokachinni
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I went on youtube and saw a few more of their vids. None others I could find in English besides this one, though. The yellow tube in one of the other vids was used to measure and mark the diameter of the structure at the beginning. I don't know why it is still present in this one, when they are laying the plastic.

looked to me to be the drainage pipe from the bottom of the pile that they were pumping back to the top



I was under the impression that they just made a low spot in the plastic, and had the low spot drain into the tub where the submersible pump was. That's how it seemed to be explained. Anyway, not a big deal. I was just curious.
 
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I've been wondering if it'd be viable to seal the top, somehow, and capture the methane product.

 
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I've been wondering if it'd be viable to seal the top, somehow, and capture the methane product.



In the Jean Pain system, he had a large tank in the center of his piles that was filled with water and a bit of the compost mix. (the water heating pipes were wrapped around the tank in his system, which had even more mass than this system in this thread that we are on. A pipe out of that tank gave off methane gas out the top, and this was stored in old inner tubes. He used some gas to fire a compressor to pressurize the gas into tanks, and from there used it to cook on, as well as to power the chipper shredder, and his trucks. I can't see a reason why you couldn't seal the top of the system, so long as you had some air intake as well, to provide oxygen to the bacteria.
 
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In the Jean Pain system, he had a large tank in the center of his piles that was filled with water and a bit of the compost mix.


The aerobic compost will be giving off mostly carbon dioxide and heat. The anaerobic bacteria love the heat but do not produce as much. Therefor the redigester inside the compost pile to produce the methane.
I watched a video where they covered the pile and recovered the heat from the air that was being pumped through the pile with a heat exchanger. Therefore the pile was not cooled by the fresh air. Theoretically one could use the drain water to produce the anaerobic solution in a tank to produce the methane to power the blower and pumps.
 
Roberto pokachinni
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I watched a video where they covered the pile and recovered the heat from the air that was being pumped through the pile with a heat exchanger. Therefore the pile was not cooled by the fresh air. Theoretically one could use the drain water to produce the anaerobic solution in a tank to produce the methane to power the blower and pumps.

I've not seen that particular video. Sounds interesting. In the Jean Pain example, the heat exchange was performed by a water line in the pile, using water pressure. This heated his house, via in-floor heating, and his hot water (at 60 degrees Celsius, if I recall correctly).
 
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