Nick Chase

Hi,
Does someone know where the OBREDIM and SADIM process originated from? If I remember it correctly from my PDC OBREDIM came from process engineering and SADIM for landscape design. Is this correct? Can someone shed some light into where those two processes came from and who invented them?
Thanks!
Nick

Hi,

I have some solar panels here that are not in use. They are 1m x 1.7m. I'm building a new home for my biogas system - basically a wooden shed. I thought of using the solar panels as roof but I can't find any solution how to mount them close to each other on a wooden structure.

How do I fasten them to the wood? And how to make sure that between the panels no water leakage happens?

Thanks!

In 2016 I followed the Solar C³ITIES team members and documented their biogas systems.
You can watch it at Youtube https://youtu.be/9sIR-aNPXRc - it's 1 hour 16 minutes. Get some popcorn and pencil & paper :)

depends. Digesters come in different sizes, from 1 to 10 to 20 m³ - even larger. You have to do the math for yourself. How much manure does a cow create per day? How many cows will you have?

If you build a 10 m³ digester and you have 2 cows the digester will be too large.
If you build a 1m³ digester and you have 20 cows the digester will be too small.

TH created a nice article about feeding some time ago: https://www.solarcities.eu/content/how-much-food-waste-can-you-feed-biodigester

Hi,

the manure must somehow get into the digster. Chinese systems are build below ground - usually besides or inside the cow house. That allows to swipe the manure into the system from the cow house floor.
If the cows are on the pasture you won't get their manure for the biogas system - it would be simply too much work to collect all the manure from the ground...

g frisco east bay wrote:

1. Are there any existing, out-of-the-box, easy-to-maintain, anaerobic biogas digester systems that can handle humanure that can be installed in an urban backyard?
2. If so, which one(s) are best recommended for a family of 4?
3. Plus, any recommendations for anyone to talk to within the San Francisco East Bay area about installation and making sure the system does not explode?

G

1. Non I'm aware of. It's always building / retrofitting
2. Family of 4 -> Puxin
3. Check https://solarcities.solutions -> they are biogas educators and might be able to help you.

8 gallon digester means it is capable of generating 8 gallon of biogas per day when on the right temperature and fed with the right amount of food. It will never reach the maximum amount and quality possible.
1 m³ of biogas is about 3 hours of flammable gas. Your 8 gallons, which is about 36 liter, is far away from 1000 liter (1m³).  I would say you have gas for some minutes but not hours.

The gas will be mainly CH4, CO2, H2S. Means that everything else is the effluent: PKN, Minerals, etc.

One of the best step-by-step instructions for an IBC digester is at http://www.solarcities.eu/education/388
A simplified version is at https://www.biogascentral.net/wiki/solar-cities-ibc-based-biogas-system

Hi, I'm at 61°N in Finland and I have a DIY biogas digester based on the SolarC³ITIES IBC design. It's part of my diploma in applied permaculture design. You can read about it: https://www.beyondbuckthorns.com/content/dapd/introducing-jean-luc

-can biogas be piped into storage tanks for long term storage?

storage at the DIY scale is usually done in floating drums or storage bags. You can compress it - if you can get rid of the CO2

-can biogas be condensed similarly to liquid propane?

not on a DIY scale. At least not that I'm aware of.

-can biogas be used with existing propane fueled appliances, or do special appliances need to be purchased?

no. Methane needs a different air to fuel ratio - and biogas out of a DIY digester is without pressure. You can modify the stoves. There are videos on Youtube.

-will a small family with a small flock of chickens really produce enough to feed the digester and make enough gas to be of use for daily cooking or heating water in the winter?

depends. Temperature inside the digester should be at least at 20°C to get it going. 37°C is preferred. If you can get it up to that temperature it depends on the size of your digester. Let's say you have one cubic IBC, then you feed about 15kg of food scraps per day to get about 1m³ of gas.  

-are there likely state or local laws preventing these sorts of setups?

If have no idea about regulations in the US...