Thermal Anaerobic Waste Digestion

[John Harder]

Thermal Anaerobic Waste Digestion.

 

Has any one heard of this technology.  Our County is thinking of looking into it, and I'd like to nip it in the bud. I was told that they are building a facility in 
Alaska.

 

John Harder, aka the Dumpdoctor

  P No trees were killed in the delivery of this message, however a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced. Please consider the environment before printing this email.

[Dreckmann, George]

John,

 

I don't think you want to kill this idea.  When done properly, anaerobic digestion of organic waste produces methane in an enclosed environment which is captured and used to power generators for electricity or used as a CNG vehicle fuel.  The system also generates a digestate that can be applied to fields as a soil amendment or further composted with yard debris to produce a high quality compost.

 

The system requires that the organic fraction of the waste be separated from the rest, unlike incinerators, which just burn everything.  There is also no burning.  The material composts in an anaerobic environment.  "wet digesters also produce a significant volume of water that can be applied to fields as a fertilizer or cleaned prior to sending to a wastewater treatment plant.

 

This is a proven technology and has been very successful in Germany and other European countries.  It is also in use in the US (there are almost 30 digesters in Wisconsin alone) on farms where it is used for manure.

 

The City of Madison is currently studying this technology and I have been working on this project for over five years.  You should go on line and search anaerobic digesters and you will find lots of good information. 

 

Of course, as with any technology it is how you do it that matters, so I cannot speak to the project that your county is looking at as I don't know what they are planning.

 

I'd be happy to discuss this with you further.

 

George

 

George P. Dreckmann

Recycling Coordinator

City of Madison, WI

1501 W. Badger Rd

Madison, WI  53713

608-267-2626

FAX  6-8-267-1120

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From: gree...@googlegroups.com [gree...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of John Harder [dumpd...@gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, February 10, 2012 5:41 PM
To: GreenYes
Subject: [GreenYes] Thermal Anaerobic Waste Digestion

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[James Travers]

George,

Any update on the research studies being done on this technology? You were going to look into this, if I recall correctly.

Jim Travers

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From: "Dreckmann, George" <GDrec...@cityofmadison.com>
To: John Harder <dumpd...@gmail.com>; GreenYes <gree...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Friday, February 10, 2012 8:55 PM
Subject: RE: [GreenYes] Thermal Anaerobic Waste Digestion

[Neil Seldman]

Dear All,  Here is a chart of AD companies and projects based on information provided by Craig Coker which ILSR used in a report to one city. The report is about 1.5 years old. There have been more developments since the report was submitted. ILSR will try to get permission to release the report and post.

Appendix

A:

Companies

offering

commercially

available

anaerobic

 digestion

facilities

Company

Contact

Digester Type

Enbasys Parkring 18 8074, Grambach Austria

http://www.enbasys.com/

(Tel.) 43 (0) 316 4009-5600

Dr. Stefan Kromus off...@enbasys.com

liquid - UASB

Entec Biogas Schilfweg 1 6972 Fussach Austria

http://www.entec-biogas.com/

(Tel.) 43 5578 7946

Bernhard Schulz off...@entec-biogas.at

several types

Solum Gruppen Vadsby Straede 6 DK-2640 Hedehusene Denmark

http://www.solum.com/

(Tel.) 45 4399 5020

Martin Hansen m...@solum.com

dry fermenter

Bekon

Feringastraße 9 D-85774 Unterföhring Germany http://www.bekon.eu/ (Tel.) 49 89 9077959-0

Nathan Dietz nathan...@bekon.eu

dry fermenter

BTA International GmbH

Färberstraße 7 85276 Pfaffenhofen Germany http://bta-international.de/ (Tel.) 49 8441 8086-600

in...@bta-international.de

slurry plug flow

Arrow Bio

HaCarmel St. Yoqneam 20692 Israel http://www.arrowbio.com/ (Tel.) 972-484-11100

arro...@arrowecology.com

liquid - UASB

Ros Roca Av. Cervera, s.n. Terrega Spain

http://www.rosroca.com/

(Tel.) 34 973 50 81 08

Ramon Sentis rse...@rosroca.com

liquid - plug flow

Update on Anaerobic Digester Projects Using Food Wastes in North America

18

GaiaRecycle

125 University Ave., Suite 150 Palo Alto, CA 94301 USA http://www.gaiarecycle.com/ (Tel.) 650-585-4416

Young Song in...@gaiarecycle.com

liquid - plug flow

OWS/ Dranco 7155 Five Mile Road Cincinnati, OH 45230 USA http://www.ows.be (Tel.) 513-535 6760

Norma McDonald norma.m...@ows.be

slurry plug flow

Qasar Energy Group 7624 Riverview Road Cleveland, OH 44141 http://www.schmackbioenergy.com (Tel.) 216-986-9999

Harlene Clemens sa...@quasarenergygroup.com

liquid - plug flow

BHS/Kompoferm 3592 West 5th Avenue Eugene, OR 97402 USA http://bulkhandlingsystems.com (Tel.) 541-485-0999

Steve Miller ste...@bhsequip.com

dry fermenter

BIOFerm Energy Systems P.O. Box 5408 Madison, WI 53705 USA http://www.biofermenergy.com (Tel.) 608-467-4241

Daniela Rumpf Ru...@BiofermEnergy.com

dry fermenter

GHD P.O. Box 69 Chilton, WI 53014 USA http://www.ghdinc.net/ (Tel.) 920-849-9797

Steve Dvorak corp...@ghdinc.net

liquid - plug flow

 Neil Seldman

Neil Seldman
President
Institute for Local Self-Reliance
2001 S Street NW, Suite 570
Washington, DC 20009
202 898 1610 X 210
nsel...@ilsr.org

[John Harder]

Sorry, but I may have not been clear in my earlier request.  The process they are discussing is something like gasification where they propose to grind up all our MSW and run it through a high temperature digestor. If it was limited to organics (greenwaste, foodwaste, sludges, etc) I wouldn't have a problem, in fact I've been looking at standard AD at our WWTPs to combine sewage sludge and foodwaste, but I have questions and concerns regarding both the costs and viability of managing unprocessed MSW that way.  Also I'm not sure how you can combine high temperatures and AD. 

On Sat, Feb 11, 2012 at 9:26 AM, Mark Snyder <snyd...@gmail.com> wrote:

You may want to post a clarification then because everyone thinks you mean anaerobic digestion of organics.

On Fri, Feb 10, 2012 at 7:05 PM, John Harder <dumpd...@gmail.com> wrote:

Mark

 

No, the process they are discussing is something like gasification where they propose to grind up all our MSW and run it through a high temperature digestor.  If it was limited to organics (greenwaste, foodwaste, sludges, etc) I wouldn't have a problem, but I have questions and concerns regarding both the costs and viability of managing unprocessed MSW that way.

 

John 

On Fri, Feb 10, 2012 at 2:57 PM, Mark Snyder <snyd...@gmail.com> wrote:

Why would you like to nip something in the bud if you don't even know if it's any good?

Anaerobic digestion is actually a pretty useful process for managing organic wastes. The products are methane, which can be used for fuel, and compost material.

Or do you mean “anaerobic thermal reclamation” which is a process that reportedly "recycles" plastic material into crude oil?

Mark Snyder
Minneapolis, MN

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John Harder, aka the Dumpdoctor

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[Alan Muller]

This phrase rings alarm bells with me also.

There is a pretty solid upper limit for digestion via methanogenic bugs--the temperature limits at which the bugs can live and work.  And this is way below temps required for "gasification," etc.  So what actual temps are they talking here?

And any sort of "digestion," or "gasification" for that matter, of mixed garbage is a non-starter.  You can take out a particular fraction and do something with it, but not, reasonably, with "mixed municipal solid waste."

So who are these promoters?  What's their website?   Process description?  Thermal and material balances?  Where has the process been demonstrated?  And so on....

Not saying its a scam, but.....

Alan