@MrAnthonyRizzo The compost tea made from the biodigestor is indeed active and very rich in micronutrients. Because we don't put much fecal material in and no lignocellulose (straw, leaves or grass) we haven't had any appreciable build up of solid biomass over the past nearly three years. Maybe in another few years we will have to vacuum out some solids but I doubt it. If we do, they will make a nice addition to the compost. To extract them we would just stick a wet vac hose down.
@tculhane Barely any sediment buildup after three years, really? All I can say is WOW! I did not know that turning kitchen scraps into bio gas was so efficient. You really do have a great setup there. It is wonderful to see that rather than producing waste you are producing fuel and liquid amendments for your garden. It is not only economically expedient but it converts a very harmful greenhouse gas into something less harmful.
@tculhane I didn’t pay attention to the date on the video. You are right. Quite a bit of time has passed. It sounds like you have refined the process and that it is working well for you. I’m still curious though; do you know how long you can continue to produce gas on a certain quantity of biogas? It seems that if you keep feeding it that it will keep producing but I’m just wondering how much gas can a a certain amount of waste produce. Thanks again for your responses.
1) How long can you keep producing bio gas from a fixed supply of liquefied food waste, for example let’s say 50 gallons?
2) Is this system any different than the one that extracts methane from cow manure or human manure?
a. If not can the two systems be combined to effectively convert not just the kitchen scraps but also bathroom fecal matter into bio gas and possibly compost tea and compost?
@MrAnthonyRizzo Thanks for your interest! Quite a bit has changed in the two years since we made that little home video; we no longer use the blender, now we put everything through our Insinkerator food disposal which is automatically pumped to the digestor on the porch. The digestor can also use fecal material and we put our baby's diaper wastes into it but haven't gotten around to replumbing the toilet. It is the same as any digestor that uses cow manure except that food waste is richer.
I have been promoting biogas use for some time, and I particularly liked this video which I think is the best I've seen at showing how simple and practical a home biogas digester system can be.
Have you thought about attaching a kitchen garbage disposal unit to the feedstock intake on your digester? Might be more convenient than the blender. But would the mix be fine enough?
Also If I understand correctly you are Living in Germany. How well does your arti biogas system work in the winter or fall?
hi, its really an awesome idea. i am planning to make such kind of bioagas plant for my home. but i wonder if anyone could tell me that why the bioagas doesnt leak out from the gap between digester and the gas holder.
Hi engineeringtube. Good question; answer is that CH4 is lighter than air and the major volume accumulates under the gas collection tank and stays there. What little is produced around the edges does bubble out but seems to be so little we can't even get it to ignite running a lighter around the rim. Could be that facultative aerobes metabolize some of it into CO2 along the way and that the methanogens cluster under the collector where the food is. Regardless we get no leakage to speak of.
Slicerrr2, just put a smaller bucket upside down into a larger bucket. Make a 1/2 inch hole in the bottom of the smaller bucket which you can fit a tube into airtight (acquarium shops have the tank fitting). Make a 2 inch hole in the bottom of the larger bucket and put a fitting in that and run a feeding tube into the center of the larger bucket. Fill with water and horse or cow manure the first day and let ferment for two weeks. Once you start getting methane, feed ground up food waste.
Great to hear from you Marcel -- you know you could always build one and claim its just a water storage tank (which it basically is) or a wet rubbish bin. Who would know? That's what we do in Cairo. In fact what it is is a kitchen disposal that produces fertilizer water. Oh yeah... it does also make gas Mr. Landlord, but that is a side effect...
Superb video T.H.! Great to see it working for you. I rue the fact that we're in rented accommodation at the moment - I don't think our landlord would appreciate us doing this! :(
He suggests that it may be possible to do biphasic digestion, starting with an aerobic process for 24 hours (not long enough to remove all the high energy value) and then giving it to the anaerobes. i haven't tried this yet. Cows, of course, do it, but they have 4 guts and specialized organisms to break down the cellulose. It is worth experimenting with!
Hi InsAne, thanks for the kind comment -- I like your theory about our son (who my wife was holding as she took the video) doing simultaneous translation for the "baby geniuses" out there (did you ever see that movie with John Travolta and Kirstie Alley?).
As for garden waste, the inventor, Dr. Karve from ARTI India told me that high cellulose material like leaves and grass and stalks can't be digested by the methanogens.
Thank you very much for the detailed explanation, I am sorry that I have noticed it so late. May I suggest to you that when you answer to a comment that you use the answering option that you can find right next to the comment that you want to answer to, then the person who made the comment or asked a question will get notified that he got an answer :-) And your answer will show up directly beneath the original comment or question.
I did see that movie with John Travolta, and that was exactly the first thing I thought about when I heard your sun :-) I have some things going on here like cleaning up my shed, making a HHO device (see my video), making an RC electric airplane, I also want to make a solar heater from empty soda/beer cans (see youtube) But this biogas has got my attention and it is on my list of useful ways to produce energy, if we are able to combine enough possibilities then eventually we will get there.
I mean SON....I am dutch so forgive me my bad English :-) I hope to make a digestor in the future, I do not have a big budget and I need to finish the other stuff first. Greets from the Netherlands, iT (InsAneTunA)
Also I would like to know:
3) The water extracts the nutrients from the bacterial digestion to make compost tea, which you use in your garden.
a. What happens to the solid biomass left over after extracting the bio gas and the compost tea?
b. How do you extract it from the digester?
Thankyou for your time and answering my questions. Your videos are very informative.
MrAnthonyRizzo 5 months ago
@MrAnthonyRizzo The compost tea made from the biodigestor is indeed active and very rich in micronutrients. Because we don't put much fecal material in and no lignocellulose (straw, leaves or grass) we haven't had any appreciable build up of solid biomass over the past nearly three years. Maybe in another few years we will have to vacuum out some solids but I doubt it. If we do, they will make a nice addition to the compost. To extract them we would just stick a wet vac hose down.
tculhane 5 months ago
@tculhane Barely any sediment buildup after three years, really? All I can say is WOW! I did not know that turning kitchen scraps into bio gas was so efficient. You really do have a great setup there. It is wonderful to see that rather than producing waste you are producing fuel and liquid amendments for your garden. It is not only economically expedient but it converts a very harmful greenhouse gas into something less harmful.
MrAnthonyRizzo 5 months ago
@tculhane I didn’t pay attention to the date on the video. You are right. Quite a bit of time has passed. It sounds like you have refined the process and that it is working well for you. I’m still curious though; do you know how long you can continue to produce gas on a certain quantity of biogas? It seems that if you keep feeding it that it will keep producing but I’m just wondering how much gas can a a certain amount of waste produce. Thanks again for your responses.
MrAnthonyRizzo 5 months ago
Could you answer these questions for me please?
1) How long can you keep producing bio gas from a fixed supply of liquefied food waste, for example let’s say 50 gallons?
2) Is this system any different than the one that extracts methane from cow manure or human manure?
a. If not can the two systems be combined to effectively convert not just the kitchen scraps but also bathroom fecal matter into bio gas and possibly compost tea and compost?
b. If so, what would the process entail?
MrAnthonyRizzo 5 months ago
@MrAnthonyRizzo Thanks for your interest! Quite a bit has changed in the two years since we made that little home video; we no longer use the blender, now we put everything through our Insinkerator food disposal which is automatically pumped to the digestor on the porch. The digestor can also use fecal material and we put our baby's diaper wastes into it but haven't gotten around to replumbing the toilet. It is the same as any digestor that uses cow manure except that food waste is richer.
tculhane 5 months ago
your blender is quiet!
UmyNEPHEW 5 months ago
how cold does it get there and does your system work all year? Love your video by the way!!
derrickandnaoko 1 year ago
I have been promoting biogas use for some time, and I particularly liked this video which I think is the best I've seen at showing how simple and practical a home biogas digester system can be.
stevevidzi 1 year ago
Hi there, not sure if you still check this. Can you use a regular household natural gas stove? If not where can you find a biogas stove? Thanks
Crestonians 1 year ago
Have you thought about attaching a kitchen garbage disposal unit to the feedstock intake on your digester? Might be more convenient than the blender. But would the mix be fine enough?
Also If I understand correctly you are Living in Germany. How well does your arti biogas system work in the winter or fall?
Good video!
ohiovr 1 year ago
hi, its really an awesome idea. i am planning to make such kind of bioagas plant for my home. but i wonder if anyone could tell me that why the bioagas doesnt leak out from the gap between digester and the gas holder.
engineeringtube 2 years ago
Hi engineeringtube. Good question; answer is that CH4 is lighter than air and the major volume accumulates under the gas collection tank and stays there. What little is produced around the edges does bubble out but seems to be so little we can't even get it to ignite running a lighter around the rim. Could be that facultative aerobes metabolize some of it into CO2 along the way and that the methanogens cluster under the collector where the food is. Regardless we get no leakage to speak of.
tculhane 2 years ago
hi, could any one explain that why the biogas doesnt leak out from the gap between the gas holder and the digester.
engineeringtube 2 years ago
hi i was wondering if you could send me plans on how to build the biogas plant i need to make one for science fair
slicerr2 2 years ago
Slicerrr2, just put a smaller bucket upside down into a larger bucket. Make a 1/2 inch hole in the bottom of the smaller bucket which you can fit a tube into airtight (acquarium shops have the tank fitting). Make a 2 inch hole in the bottom of the larger bucket and put a fitting in that and run a feeding tube into the center of the larger bucket. Fill with water and horse or cow manure the first day and let ferment for two weeks. Once you start getting methane, feed ground up food waste.
tculhane 2 years ago
Good idea basically.... but if you have to blend everything before it goes into the fertilizer, you still need a lot of electricity.
Btw is looks a bit unsafe, your system.... no worries about safety issues?
chrigel1234 2 years ago
this was great.
bg0821 2 years ago
Great to hear from you Marcel -- you know you could always build one and claim its just a water storage tank (which it basically is) or a wet rubbish bin. Who would know? That's what we do in Cairo. In fact what it is is a kitchen disposal that produces fertilizer water. Oh yeah... it does also make gas Mr. Landlord, but that is a side effect...
tculhane 2 years ago
;)
PS. I'm mulling a few questions and will be in touch when I have few minutes to write.
[m]
Beardy241 2 years ago
Superb video T.H.! Great to see it working for you. I rue the fact that we're in rented accommodation at the moment - I don't think our landlord would appreciate us doing this! :(
Lovely to hear your little man chiming in too! ;)
[m]
Beardy241 2 years ago
He suggests that it may be possible to do biphasic digestion, starting with an aerobic process for 24 hours (not long enough to remove all the high energy value) and then giving it to the anaerobes. i haven't tried this yet. Cows, of course, do it, but they have 4 guts and specialized organisms to break down the cellulose. It is worth experimenting with!
tculhane 2 years ago
Hi InsAne, thanks for the kind comment -- I like your theory about our son (who my wife was holding as she took the video) doing simultaneous translation for the "baby geniuses" out there (did you ever see that movie with John Travolta and Kirstie Alley?).
As for garden waste, the inventor, Dr. Karve from ARTI India told me that high cellulose material like leaves and grass and stalks can't be digested by the methanogens.
tculhane 2 years ago
Thank you very much for the detailed explanation, I am sorry that I have noticed it so late. May I suggest to you that when you answer to a comment that you use the answering option that you can find right next to the comment that you want to answer to, then the person who made the comment or asked a question will get notified that he got an answer :-) And your answer will show up directly beneath the original comment or question.
insAneTunA 2 years ago
I did see that movie with John Travolta, and that was exactly the first thing I thought about when I heard your sun :-) I have some things going on here like cleaning up my shed, making a HHO device (see my video), making an RC electric airplane, I also want to make a solar heater from empty soda/beer cans (see youtube) But this biogas has got my attention and it is on my list of useful ways to produce energy, if we are able to combine enough possibilities then eventually we will get there.
insAneTunA 2 years ago
I mean SON....I am dutch so forgive me my bad English :-) I hope to make a digestor in the future, I do not have a big budget and I need to finish the other stuff first. Greets from the Netherlands, iT (InsAneTunA)
insAneTunA 2 years ago
Great videos I like it a lot. Does it work with garden waste like leaves, as well?
insAneTunA 2 years ago
P.S. I think that your son/daughter is explaining to the very young viewers what you are doing :-)
insAneTunA 2 years ago