Biogas Energy Solutions

What is a Biodigester?

Can a BIODIGESTER really reduce harmful greenhouse gases?

Yes, it can!

Biogas - What is it and WHY?

Biogas is a very simple gas to manufacture. It has its drawbacks like most energy sources in the world today, but, of all the energy sources, biogas is by far the safest and most cost effective energy source to be found.

Biogas is created very much like alcohol - it’s fermented and one could say distilled. Quite a statement, you might think. Essentially, biogas is obtained from waste materials that normally land up in the many tip-heaps so ugly on our skylines today. These tip sites are pumping out methane, hydrogen, and hydrogen sulphide and chlorine gases 24 hours a day 365 days a year creating toxic air and ton upon ton of greenhouse gases.

How does this happen in today’s sophisticated world?

Well, simple, really. Your cast out kitchen and garden waste is dumped on a tip. There it gets compacted, along with 100000 other households’ wastes, and covered with soil. This means that the air is not able to circulate through it, depriving it of oxygen; this is called anaerobic compaction. The microbes begin their valuable work of breaking down the waste to fertiliser like compost, releasing their excrement as oxygen deficient gas called methane. This gas is very toxic on the dump, but extremely useful when specifically produced as flammable gas. This decaying process releases a large degree of moisture, under very high temperatures due to the anaerobic decay. The water turns to vapour in the heat, and the methane draws as much oxygen from the water vapour as it can, leaving the vapour oxygen poor. Water is H²O….take away the O (oxygen), and we are left with an extremely volatile gas called hydrogen.

Cheric Energy can erect a biodigester in as small a space as one square metre of floor space. This size unit can produce enough free gas to cook for a family of 4 to 6 persons, on a two burner gas stove - EVERY SINGLE DAY as long as it is fed with as little as 1.5 to 3Kg of household kitchen waste per day. Doggy do, pig, horse, chicken, cow manure from the garden is great digester feedstock too, now there is a useful thing to do with that really smelly stuff.  AND THIS BIOGAS IS COMPLETELY ODOURLESS!!

The Methane and Hydrogen combine and give an odourless gas blend called BIOGAS. On contact with air and with an ignition source, this gas burns with a clear blue flame, perfect for cooking, heating, lighting and petrol engine fuel.

The benefits of a biodigester and its energy value to third world nations as well as the environment at large

In most third world countries, cooking is primarily done on open flames from burning precious wood, animal dung and bones. This method of cooking releases tons of greenhouse gas and puts high levels of toxic gases and tars into the food directly via copious volumes of smoke.

It also depletes the most valuable, most threatened source of life on Earth - the forestation. One family will destroy upwards of 8 trees per year just to cook food. There are millions of these families in the forests around the world. And many thousands are living on the outskirts of forested areas too.

A biogas digester, on the other hand, breaks down celluloses oils and fats, and carbonaceous matter to produce the methane/hydrogen/ hydrogen sulphide gas blend which, once burned, is harmless to nature and is entirely nontoxic in foods prepared in this manner. There is virtually a never ending supply of organic wastes such as wasted foods, animal dung and slaughter wastes, thus making biogas a very safe, very attractive, very cheap method of cooking and heating.

Pros of Biogas Energy

• Biogas is extremely clean burning – more so than present day LPG gas you buy in cylinders. Correctly installed, biogas burns with a very blue flame which is difficult to see clearly in the daytime. But in low light conditions, it burns blue with no yellow or orange impurities in the flame and thus, it does not blacken the cooking utensils in any way. Biogas is free; you do not have to buy it. It sustains itself. If you use it all today, there will be more tomorrow in perpetuity as long as the digester is being fed. Biogas is a low-pressure gas and therefore is less likely to burst pipes. It can, therefore, be piped in a standard water pipe. The digester and gas collector is not very expensive these days. It makes absolutely pure fertiliser of the highest biologically safe standard with little odour.

Cons of Biogas Energy

• Biogas digesters need feeding daily, they need a steady temperature, and they use a little water – about 10 litres per day. Maintaining a digester can take 30 to 60 minutes depending on size. The digester should preferably be buried to maintain its temperature and maximise its output, but it is not absolutely essential, it just takes a little longer to produce gas.

Our Biogas Energy options

Cheric Energy manufactures biogas plants from pure HDPE materials. They are 100% recyclable, and 100% corrosion proof, which means they can last for very many years. Although Cheric Energy research and development is constantly ongoing, and improvements in application are always in mind, but this technology is so well proven the old adage of “You can’t fix it if it isn’t broke” definitely applies here