ANAEROBIC DIGESTION - GENERATING BIOGAS ON PURPOSE

摘要

A renewable energy technology which has been around for a very long time but is now garnering more interest in the country is anaerobic digestion. Anaerobic digestion has received a "bad rap" at times because many projects have eventually failed since the developers did not "do their homework". Unfortunately, the science of anaerobic digestion was not widely understood resulting in misapplications of the technologies and failed projects. This paper is part of the author's mission to educate potential developers on how to develop a successful project. This paper will provide a technical, yet practical, overview of the science of anaerobic digestion, describe the keys to the implementation of a successful project, and review the benefits of a digester beyond just the generation of biogas. The paper will describe what happens inside a digester, why and how the biogas is generated and exactly what biogas is. The paper will provide an introduction into the various types of digester designs which are available and their particular applications. The "science" of anaerobic digestion is well-understood and has been applied to successful digester projects for a long time. This success of a digester project relies heavily on the project developers completing the "due diligence" to make sure they understand the basics of digester science and applying the correct type of digester to the substrates available.