Homemade biogas digester for cheap renewable off grid electricity with my DIY Stirling engine CHP

[@davidoutdoors74]

Awesome video i started my 275 gallon IBC digester on cow manure. 4 weeks later i had burnable biogas. I now have videos of me powering a small gas generator. Gas production with good temps will bring better results very true.

[@christomold3142]

Outstanding job. ❤

[@myengines2443]

Thanks, this keeps up my motivation!!

[@Boerikoe]

Hi, I've just started up my Methane Digester, cow dung being my startup feedstock. Everything got moving after heating up the slurry in the IBC of 1m³ to just over 30°C. Would love to hear how you go about cleaning the gas. I've read the following stages, first bubble through water, then through a bed of moisture absorbing granules (like cat litter), and finally through steel wool. Keep well & hope to hear from you.

[@FBPrepping]

Did you already built your gas cleaning line? It would be great to know how it went.

[@Boerikoe]

@@FBPrepping Yes I did, unfortunately we moved into winter and I didn't get good enough cow manure...so the process came to an abrupt stop. Will go around the farmers again and ask for fresh cow manure and load up the system again. One of the tutorials recommended using Ø50 or 2" pvc pipe to feed the tank, but this is far too small the matter that is fed into the tank just gets stuck in this little pipe - annoying. I'll increase the pipe diameter to something like Ø65 or Ø80, so need to dismantle my setup a bit to get this done. The Gas Cleaning unit is done as in kzbin.info/www/bejne/jWjddJlnidWbeNU

[@markgeurts258]

Hi Ralf, i use a similair setup but with a refrigerator compressor, to compress the biogass to 10 Bar in a Propane Bottle. I clean the gas through a wood ash filter that makes the gas clean and odorless. Do you make the gas without heating the water? I have used an electric Aquarium heater, but that uses a lot of electricity, i have however insulated the IBC container with styrofoam balls.. MFG, Mark

[@myengines2443]

Hi, I also thought about compressing the biogas and I insulated the digester very well for the winter and feed a hose with the hot cooling water through it. Wood ash works well, interesting as we have eoungh of it... Thaks for your comment

[@Hermit_of_the_Holler]

Great video. I use an IBC Tote as a digester with most of the feed stock being cow manure. Love the idea for a Stirling engine. Thank you !!!

[@jeffliddicoat714]

Well thought out, keep up the excellent work

[@letsplaysquire3257]

Use excess solar energy to power a compressor to store the biogas in a canister, use said canister to power sterling engine outside of peak solar times

[@Weirdomanification]

Smart

[@togowack]

compressor expensive for power a lot of engineering uses as much as it produces...

[@togowack]

there needs to be a way to store or use this gas at low pressure

[@OmmerSyssel]

Plain IBC 500 liter containers installed as accumulation tank, heated as much as possible for later usage. Eventually supplied by cheap grid electricity during the night/low price periods?

[@andrewb9595]

You should try using a DIY parabolic trough collector to generate electricity during the daytime so you don't have to produce as much biogas to run the generator.

[@ukpoetry]

Nice. I knew some-one would have realized this idea.

[@vincenthamilton2828]

...There's a lot of dedication....

[@RandyRandersonthefamous]

11/10 very well made video. Music makes it relaxing! I'm sure a 55 gallon can power an inverter generator for a while! Having some power is better than none. It would be on demand power if you charged a battery system.

[@magnusnr83]

The flame examples indicates too much air in the premix (as you also noted). Simplest way to test is to tape one one or more air inlet holes shut, should help with the flame lift. Unfortonately methane has a boiling point of -162 c otherwise condensing it would have been nice. Perhaps further compressing the gas is the way to go. Steel tank with a rubber bladder inside and compressing with air?

[@nordfox9669]

Richtig nice, danke. Der Generator für die Wärmerückgewinnung ist top. Baue was ähnliches...auch mit 200l Digestor. wenn der Gastank voll ist, startet der Endschalter das Nachlaufrelais für den alten Kühlschrankkompresser der die 11Kg Gasflasche auf ca. 12 Bar füllen soll (mit Luftkompressor -Sicherheitsschalter) die angeblich um die 130 kw fassen soll...bei Wärmebedarf soll die Camping LPG-Heizung mit 36 Kw Leistung( um ca. 260€ von Amazon) den Pufferspeicher des Hauses auf 75° erwärmen... Eine andere Option wäre ein kleiner Benzin-Viertaktmotor mit einen LPG Vergaser als Art mini BHKW , der bei Schlechtwetter den Digestor heizt oder die Solarbatterien auflädt. Freue mich auf weiter Videos.

[@hangroxhumanbeatbox8799]

Mach mal nen Review wenn du fertig bist bzw halt mich auf dem laufenden bin da auch am experimentieren und suche nach Möglichkeiten den Digestor zu erwärmen.

[@junreyparacuelles]

Greetings from Philippines :) i like your setup. especially your Stirling engine. I wish I could also connect stirling to my digester.

[@zzanzare]

This is absolutely amazing. For how long can you run the stirling engine from 100l of methane?

[@myengines2443]

Hi, the pressure of the gas tank is to low for the ringburner as you can see in the video. I can cook about 30 minutes with a daily yield of 100 l biogas. Greetings

[@myengines2443]

Next thing I will do is to compess the biogas to a higher pressure to see how much electricity can be generated with the Stirlings per day.

[@itanc1]

Nice film dood and love the stirlings. How’s the compression going.

[@HafizurRahman-yc9uw]

sir please make some more videos like this. I'm also made a Diy Lead acid battery from Soldering wire. it worked but very low voltage but enough to light a LED. But i didn't made any video while making it.

[@theaussienurseflipper.8113]

Great video, run a petrol motor in the gas mate.

[@aliforster1399]

I want to see all the tools with their pictures please. 2. Is the tools expensive. 2. Is it easy to get it.

[@caked3953]

Does the fertilizer get used or is it only a waste byproduct?

[@myengines2443]

Hi, we have a very big garden and I can use the fertiliser very well. When used on the lawn it lets grow the grass faster which gives more biomass for the digester etc.

[@agrippanyagwaya2308]

With that size of biogas reactor can you tell me the everage gas produced on a 24hour period on a hot day

[@myengines2443]

here in cold Germany with not optimal conditions I get about 100 liters per day, with higher temperatures and better conditions I think about 200 liters per day could be possible.

[@jonathanbryanschmalhofer9889]

Großartig, super Vorhaben. Tatsächlich liebäugle ich mit einem identischen Aufbau. Dein selbstgebauter Stirling-Motor ist auch klasse. Wäre es möglich dich auch direkt zum Austausch zu kontaktieren?

[@myengines2443]

Hi Jonathan, super daß du auch Interesse an eigenem Biogas hast, fang an es macht viel Spaß. Lass uns doch hier auf KZbin schreiben, dann haben alle was davon und jeder kann Informationen bekommen. Schreib einfach in die Kommentare und ich antworte dann, kann aber immer etwas dauern... Danke für dein Interesse Viele Grüße

[@romualdaskuzborskis]

Have you tried the engine with the solar instead?

[@togowack]

would require large dish, I think the idea of the Stirling is dependable power on whatever fuel is available

[@henrikkarl25]

Pretty cool video. About the electricity, why not Just build a windmill for your electricity ? You can quite easily build your own 1 kwh windmill

[@OmmerSyssel]

Most likely not allowed by local authorities. Wind turbines brings issues like noise and shadowing.

[@neb6229]

Idk how ill ever be able to build something like this I dont have the equipment. I really wish there were companies that made medium size to larger sterling engines for legitimate use. But lets be honest here if the whole world got on the sterling wave Gasoline/petrol sellers would lose money because people would have the freedom to burn a different fuel then what they are offering. For instance having a gas generator is fine and all but what happens in a real emergency and there isn't any gasoline plus everyone else with gas generators will be clamoring to the pumps for it. The best alternative I've found is this sterling tech but there doesn't seem to be many middle of the road options for consumers who want something that not a desk toy but also doesn't make a license to buy. One day I might be able to or maybe people will catch on.

[@lucasimark7992]

Actually there are industrial stiring engines as far as i know.

[@antistressmusique9688]

999subscribers + 1 subscriber = 1000 subscribers, congratulation

[@agrippanyagwaya2308]

Zimbabwe Harare

[@tkmotors991]

Maybe Make mini electric turbo to suck out of the barrel and push into the gas burner

[@myengines2443]

Hi, thats a nice idea because no extra gas tank is needed. You have an idea what kind of turbo would be suitable? Thanks Ralf

[@tkmotors991]

I don’t think it would have to be much maybe just a small motor inside a pipe with the right shape impeller🤔

[@togowack]

@@myengines2443 I think you will end up with multiple different orifices in the burner or possible another slower running Stirling.

[@FrankensteinDIYkayak]

come to the US and talk up your ideas to preppers and offgriders

[@davidsteinhour5562]

Here in sunny Florida, USA, a few solar panels are a cheap reliable way to produce 300w (and much more). But I suppose German climate requires a lot more creativity and complexity.

[@cesarcesar1961]

biogas powered systems are good very good for farms. I do agree it is too much work to power a single home.

[@mzi6519]

Year but not at night . If you dont have a Power wall ore Something like that you are Not of grid

[@xochipili1]

Spark a lister petter diesel.

[@Sprengi13]

I am thinking of building something similar, yet as you have shown the pressure of the gas is too low to be useful. As I don't have waste to feed every day I could fill the reactor once and wait until most of the process is completed. As the system is enclosed it should be possible to run the entire bioreactor under elevated pressure. This is called autogenerative high pressure digestion where the whole process takes place inside a pressure vessel. The ongoing methanogenesis slowly builds up pressure up to several hundred bars. The whole concept is described in this paper: www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Autogenerative-high-pressure-digestion%3A-anaerobic-a-Lindeboom-Fermoso/93532ba51546faf8323e2d3d41ac947e95d538ae. The methane concentration in the produced gas is greater while H2S and CO2 get solved in water. This leads to undesired acidification, though. The gas can be stored in less space. One could build multiple independent reactors that feed the gas into one tank, so they could be refueled individually. The only problem here is building the pressure vessels. Used diving bottles could be a cheap source.

[@myengines2443]

Hi Spreng0r, several hundred bars pressure sounds interesting but also dangerous for me. Please let us know any progress of your project. The low pressure of my setup is not useless (I can cook and heat water and so on) but it is not enough pressure to run my Stirling generators. When I have time I will build a small pump and look how many power can be produced with the biogas. Greetings Ralf

[@togowack]

@@myengines2443 Hi Ralf as a fellow engineer working on a mass produced model of what you have I encourage you to find a way to use the low pressure gas for electrical generation, what you have is very nice, the future will require multiple fuels with any number of delivery methods. I am leaning in the direction of a smaller stirling for the small temperature differentials that surround us everywhere in life.

[@christophwinkler5954]

Moin aus Deutschland :P

[@kaervas]

You will obtain a lot more energy by converting a cheap lawn mover generator to gas!!.

[@vincenthamilton2828]

Hi Ralf, congrats to your highly developed and well running stirling machine ! There's a of dedication stuck in your built. Several years ago I did build a loaded stirling machine with hermetic sealing of the inner pressure. It was running but with little power because I only wanted to test the sealing concept and therefor I let aside all means to increase the power that would have complicated the built. Have you ever heard about the afterburner Brayton cycle based machines of Richard Proeschel ? Would like to know your estimation about that concept. www.proepowersystems.com