Grober Green

It was a beautiful day today, as the supporting beams for the ceiling on the digester tank were installed.  The sun was shining and not a cloud in sight for the better part of the day.  The supporting beams are solid pine pillars, and the ceiling is going to be made up of many planks of pine as well.  The ceiling is made out of wood because it will naturally absorb the unwanted sulfur byproduct of the digestion process.

Also in the past few days, the forms for the first ring of the new holding tank have been put up, as well as the structural re-bar for the walls.  Inside the digestion tank, tar was sprayed onto the uppermost ring.  This ring will be the only ring in contact with the gases, and so the tar will protect the wall from any wear and tear that would occur there.  The sand and rocks that washed into the trenchs around the digestion tank and F.O.G. tank were shoveled out and cleaned up to allow us to pick up the bentonite carpet and nail it to the walls of the tanks.  This allows for the future rain water to run away from the base of the tank rather than stay around the walls and foundation.

The forecast is showing more sun over the week, which means progress will not be delayed by pumping water out of the pits, and hopefully it stays that way.

work being done on Spetember 1st 2009

The Genset Room in C Barn is coming along in its final phases of deconstruction, with the interior walls removed and the floor washed, just a small tidy up effort needed until that section is ready to be rebuilt.

Outside of the barn, the lid was poured onto the F.O.G. tank and near that, the foundation has been poured for the pasteurizer container. Photos of the progress can be in the Biogas Project tab, under Biogas 8. In these photos, Barry Bender Excavation Company is digging in preparation to pour the foundation for a 100 foot digestate tank. The re-bar for the foundation is being put in this morning by the company Cronin. Cronin is the company specializing in concrete pouring of large manure storage tanks, and are working on building this new digestate tank, and they were the company that built the existing manure storage tank nearby.

The results of last Thursdays thunder storm and rain left us with hours of water pumping on Friday, and a very muddy job.

This video on YouTube shows how the Stahlbush Island Farms became self sufficient in their energy needs to run the entire farm. They are using vegetable and plant waste that normally goes unused, to generate their own heat for water and seed drying, steam for plant care, and energy to power the farm. The video shows the digestate tank and how it looks when full of digestate, as well a generalview of the Genset and the electrical setup.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOw_gpUcaEk

photos from August 28th 2009

Photos from August 11th 2009

Another thunder storm come and gone, leaving us with inches of water in the tanks and pits to pump out bright and early in the morning, with another thunder storm in the forecast.

As for a progress report on the tanks, the construction crew began building a wooden platform inside the F.O.G. tank today, and Aron is off to another anaerobic digester project around the St. Cathrines area.  This project is further along in the production than the one on Corner Farm, and is going to be used as a learning experience so we have an idea of what is in store for this project.

Aside from that, I did some straightening up in D Barn’s garage area, making sure tools and other things are put in their proper places, so they can be found when needed.  I also made sure I would have the pump tank on the tractor in lieu of another intense rain/thunder storm, so that the water can be pumped out of the pits straight away in the morning.

Again, the rain came down yesterday in a hurry and took a good part of my morning to pump it all out of the pits around the tanks.  I spent the rest of my day working on the aesthetics around the middle court of the Corner Farm barns, clearing out weeds.  As for my other project of cleaning up C Barn, we have removed all the flooring that was used for the calves and we are down to the bare concrete.  A few more loads of manure remain but now at least more work can be done to further C Barn’s preparation.  The construction crew placed the heating pipes onto the rebar in the F.O.G. tank.  These pipes are also being used in the digestion tank to keep the digestate at a constant temperature throughout the seasons, to keep the bacteria at their optimal digesting environment.

Today is going to be ‘Interesting Facts about Anaerobic Digestion’ day.

1. The first is about the inner ceiling of the digester tank, which is constructed out of wood.  When I first read this, it struck me as odd, considering the operation is to be around for some time, and wood rots.  The wood acts as an absorbing agent for the unusable byproduct of digestion, sulfur.  The sulfur binds to the wood and is removed from the tank.
2. The process of breaking the manure into methane and carbon dioxide is a 4 step process
   1. Bacteria break down large particles into smaller ones, more manageable for the next step’s bacteria to continue digestion. (Hydrolysis)
   2. Stage 2 involves Acidogenic bacteria to break down the smaller particles into carbon dioxide, hydrogen, ammonia and organic acids. (Acidogenesis)
   3. Stage 3 utilizes acetogenic bacteria to convert the organic acids into acetic acid, ammonia, hydrogen, and carbon dioxide.  (Acedogenesis)
   4. In stage 4, methanogens convert all the previous into methane and carbon dioxide. (Methanogenesis)
3. The first anaerobic biodigester was built in Bombay, India in 1859, adn in 1895, the gases released from septic tanks was used to fuel street lamps in Exeter, England.  A great resource in those times for street lamp fuel.

To read more about the various types of anaerobic process and all its applications, visit the following site (where some of this information came from)… click here

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Anaerobic_digestion#encyclopedia

The rain has been unforgiving for the building crews lately.  The pits have been filling with water faster than they can be pumped out.  In order to keep continuing progress on the digester tank, the water needed to be pumped out first, delaying the time available to spend cleaning up C Barn.  However, progress has made in C Barn over the week.  We pumped water into the barn to mix the old dried manure in order to pump it out.  The next step involved us wading around in the shin deep liquid manure, mixing, scraping and pumping it out of the barn.  We are currently halfway complete with removal of the manure with at least another day left in there. 

The days have been long and the weather has been miserable, but sunny days are coming.   And with that comes the concrete for the F.O.G. tank to be poured and further construction on the digester tank.  As for me, I’ll continue my work in C Barn, cleaning up all the oak floors that were removed to empty the manure.  Much of what is being removed from the barn is not going to waste.  Parts of the oak floors and planks are to be used in the upcoming Community Garden Project.

That’s all for today’s blog, until next time.

Yesterday, the fifth and final ring of the biodigester tank was poured into the forms.  After the weekend the forms will come off and the tank will be ready for the next step in its construction.  The F.O.G.  pit’s (fats, oils and greases) base was also poured and will be ready to move forward on Monday.  This will eventually be a tank much smaller than the biodigester, and will hold used fats, oils and greases from restaurants and food processing plants, and is added to the manure inside the digester tank.  Another way Grober is helping to recycle and stay green!

 The rearward barn on the Corner Farm is called C Barn, and will be the location for all the controls and the generator.  As of now, the barn is in process of being converted from an open housing calf barn into something a little more suitable for this project.   That is where I come in.  My focus at this point is to work inside C Barn, cleaning out all unnecessary clutter and strip it down for a renovation.  It is to be a showcase room to display the system when it becomes operational.  At this point, there is still manure inside the barn and calf housing that must be removed, as well, the inner walls need to be stripped down and removed so that the barn can be properly renovated.  In the coming week I will be removing the old manure, the flooring and cleaning up the debris from tearing down the walls.  The inner walls were damaged by exposure to the calves and broke down over time.  They are going to be rebuilt and dividing walls will be built to separate the generator room from the holding room. 

And for your viewing pleasure, I found 2 video’s that are rather interesting and explain the biodigestion process in an easy to understand and simplified version.

 The first is a very basic overview that explains how the gas is generated and how the process is entirely renewable, as well as a simple description of how the biodigestor fits into the carbon cycle and what the products can be used for.  Although informational, the narration is a bit hard to take.

The second is a study done by University students on the waste products of a food vender on the school campus.   They describe the collection process, preparation, and the extraction of the methane from the food waste.

Enjoy!