Off-Grid Biogas Essentials - 3 mistakes you can avoid

[@craigmilsom4036]

Thanks for taking the time to explain the problems that may occur with the system 😊

[@cornerstonevalley]

No problems Craig, glad you got something out of it.

[@johnfitbyfaithnet]

Yes thank you

[@stevenandros4586]

Good on ya mate! An honest assessment is always appreciated.

[@cornerstonevalley]

Thanks Steven, glad you could get something out of it.

[@jamesjoyce1340]

Love the background sound track 😊 Lots of good suggestions here. My 3 suggestions. 1. Chop your scraps finer. 2. Make sure it keeps warm...38 degrees is best. The also hate big swings in temperature...so maybe bury the sides in leaf litter compost. 3. It is easy to add more gas storage ... bladders, water sealed vessels...just don't ever forget it is flammable gas!

[@cornerstonevalley]

Glad you enjoyed it James, thanks for the tips! I had thoughts of making a food scrap chipper a while ago, maybe time to revisit the idea

[@DC9848]

Great video, have you considered letting neighbors to give their food scraps. They could take some of the liquid fertilizer back rather than buying it in the store?

[@cornerstonevalley]

Thanks DC, no I hadn't thought of that actually, we don't have close neighbours, which might the a bit tricky. But yes, we have given the liquid fertiliser away to friends in empty milk bottles.

[@timnossaman9358]

If you have extra space, maybe grow a crop just for feeding the digester? Something starchy and easy to grow like beets, daikon or sunchokes

[@cornerstonevalley]

Thanks Tim! Yes, we have about 2ac cleared and are toying with different ideas and crops to plant in it for a variety of different uses. We should really make more effort to go next door to pick up the horse manure as well!

[@permiek]

Really appreciate the effort to show us a real use case 👏. Try using a trad pressure cooker on the burner you will get more bang for your gas buck.

[@cornerstonevalley]

Thanks permiek! Glad you got something out of it. Thanks for the pressure cooker tip! I'll give it a go.

[@bernadettekerbey9117]

You can add anything that you can digest - Avoid stuff with cellulose in (paper/wood/tree leaves) - I’m not sure about grass but I’m guessing nettles, comfrey and things like that are fine to add (and great nutrient sources. I find it useful to think of the unit as a large stomach. We too have a larger system than would be necessary for us so I’m using all the bits I’m clearing from the vegetable garden and windfall apples to ensure we are feeding enough. I have some perpetuel kale plants so I top up our food waste bucket with leaves from that as well.

[@cornerstonevalley]

Thanks Bernadette! Yes, it's been fun trying to get the most out of it. We just bought a dog and have been making a slurry with his poo and seeing good results. Helps it's coming into spring here as well.

[@ricksteen935]

I hate to suggest smaller pieces of the grass material. More surface area for the microbes to digest more easily.

[@cornerstonevalley]

@@ricksteen935 Thanks Rick. Yes, smaller pieces would better than larger ones I would imagine.

[@FBPrepping]

@@cornerstonevalley Really?? dog poo?...dang.

[@teresaholland4790]

Hate the Noise

[@Solaboder]

Thanks for your video. It helps people understand there is a learning curve involved in using biogas. That is a good thing because fully understanding the process allows for less dependence on 'the grid', which one day might not exist... I have been using the same unit in South Island NZ now for nearly 2 years. I find it produces the right amount of gas for the volume of food waste a person or family produces on a weekly basis. IE: the more people, the more food waste, the more gas produced. We are now using two biogas stoves from our unit, this by setting up a second gas bag for additional gas storage to take advantage of times when a stove is not used. I have also installed the biogas toilet (for a single person use) which adds to input volume. Also recently, I got a garbage disposal unit and sink bench from our local recycle centre ($30 investment) which turns even chopped up waste into soup and increases digestion many times faster. I promote domestic biogas digesters, - the way of the future..!

[@cornerstonevalley]

Thanks Solaboder! Great to hear your journey with biogas. We have been thinking about using a secondary bladder just to increase our storage. I've just plumbed up a bbq to take the biogas. You might find it useful. kzbin.info/www/bejne/jWjcf5dsp9SjeLs I agree with you in that they are not very big and so would be easy to fit in most suburban gardens and have a dramatic reduction in food waste going into landfill. Good luck with it all!

[@Solaboder]

thanks, watched your BBQ video, you covered all the points and with very good explanations. Given that using a BBQ is mainly a summer past time, there is a better chance of having enough biogas to burn it for that 45min- 1hr use... It does use a lot more gas than the single burner stove though, so not an every day use...

[@cornerstonevalley]

Thanks mate, glad you enjoyed it!

[@debbie7116]

Thank you - you saved me a lot of time and heartache!

[@cornerstonevalley]

Thanks Debbie, glad it was useful! Goodluck with your biogas plant.

[@steve2064]

Great vid Ned. Any soil your growing food on, or want to improve, will love the regular top ups of your fertiliser. Around tree roots, really any where you want to start pouring it out on will benefit. I’m assuming it is all liquid waste. Start a rotational system of a few areas and watch the difference in growth and health of plants.

[@cornerstonevalley]

Thanks Steve, yes we have just started using the liquid fertilizer on our fruit trees. Can't wait to see the difference.

[@mariusolden9762]

hello :) if you have a problem with to less methane, you can add used frying oil.. cow dung have a methane production on 1 to 13... one gallon of cow dung will turn into about 13 gallon of methane... if you use used frying oil.. the ratio is 1 to 600... just ask a lokal resturant or something, in many countries they pay to get rid of it ;)

[@cornerstonevalley]

Thanks for the tip Marius!

[@julzhepburn3688]

Plus ,,you didnt make a mistake ,,when theres no gas in the shops you will be very happy you have this ,, 👌🎶♥️

[@cornerstonevalley]

😃

[@t.h.o.r.]

This is cool. You are cool- even the advert I had to watch at the beginning was cool! You're going to nail this KZbin thing

[@cornerstonevalley]

Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it. And I'm glad the ad was good, I don't have any control over them yet, but hopefully one day.

[@t.h.o.r.]

The ads suck - don't be tempted to use an ad blocker- they punish you for it. @@cornerstonevalley

[@mercermouth7571]

Many of the Biogas Reactors in operation are inputting vegetation from the environment; grass clipping, leaves, plants, etc... If you have the property, it shouldn't be difficult to collect more than you need on a daily bases. It would also help to assemble a simple [6-stage] scrubber to increase the 'octane' levels by as much as 15%. This also helps prevent wear on your burners by removing the CO2 & H2S. Lastly, if you have a compressor and some 20lb propane bottles, you can compress the [scrubbed] CH4 for storage and use later.

[@cornerstonevalley]

Thank you! Yes, Ive seen some that put in grass clippings, but the home biogas says not to as it takes a long time to breakdown for not much has production. This unit come with a activated carbon cartridge for the scrubber. Yes, the next step for this project is to start compressing the gas to use on my BBQ! Stay tuned and thanks!

[@kreynolds1123]

​​@@cornerstonevalley compressor and tank is nice for storage space but needs a down pressure regulato to run your stove. If space is not a concern, plastic bags with a few pounds of weight on them would provide as much storage space as you need and the weight could be adjusted to provide the nessesary flow of biogas to your stove without a pressure regulator.

[@cornerstonevalley]

@@kreynolds1123 Thanks Keith, I’ll have a look into it

[@martinpeppe79]

Thank you, really informative. Good on you

[@cornerstonevalley]

Thanks Martin, glad you enjoyed it!

[@samdekok72]

Great info. Was a bit surprised to see you weren’t aadding a few kilos a day of all the organic grads etc growing in the background.

[@cornerstonevalley]

Thanks Sam! The manufacturer of the biogas plant says not to add green material, grass, weeds etc. They say it does not produce enough gas and takes a long time to breakdown. I've just been trusting them.

[@kreynolds1123]

​@@cornerstonevalley your biogas digester is already under utilized. It won't hurt to add a little green and let it continue digesting a bit longer. Give it a shot. 😊

[@apspogiMyMerMories_A1-610N]

Very good info. Exactly the details that I need to know.

[@cornerstonevalley]

Great, I'm glad it was helpful!

[@johnablorh2186]

Thank you!!! You gave me lots of food for thought I would not have considered!

[@cornerstonevalley]

Thanks John, glad you got something out of it!

[@heatherjolly8389]

Thanks for the vid!

[@cornerstonevalley]

No worries! Glad you enjoyed it

[@jasonfung6815]

Very useful information,thanks!

[@cornerstonevalley]

Glad you liked it Jason!

[@cdogallen7143]

Thanks for sharing. I've been looking into these and have had ?'s and a few doubts but you have cleared them up

[@cornerstonevalley]

No problems Cdog, glad I could help!

[@bersef]

Great info. Thanks.

[@cornerstonevalley]

Glad you found it useful JB!

[@zachariahstillwater]

Thank you

[@cornerstonevalley]

No worries, glad you enjoyed it!

[@beeee4249]

Thank you so much for the video. It answers a lot of my questions.

[@cornerstonevalley]

No problems Bee! Glad it helped!

[@etienneconod8075]

Thanks for sharing, in the Lucky Country you have more sunshine to get the needed heat than we have in cold Switzerland :-)

[@cornerstonevalley]

Thanks Etienne! Yes, lucky country indeed but you are in a beautiful part of the world as well!

[@etienneconod8075]

@@cornerstonevalley I have been making silage from my grass clippings. My digester seems to like it. Just put it in plastic bag, airtight and wait for 2 months.

[@cornerstonevalley]

@@etienneconod8075 Thanks! I'll have to give it a go.

[@rad7142]

hey man wanting to go down this route. the excess fert. Woodchips/carbon will absorb nitrogen as part of its process of breaking down which it will release in a slowing once it it the degrades. Example fresh woodchip can take 2-3years to breakdown, this can be fasten by mixing in compost etc or in your case pour your excess fert on your woodchip pile (when wood chips go from woodchips to dark woody mulch/almost woody soil = one of the best food resources for worms (worm farm)....

[@cornerstonevalley]

Thanks uncle rad! Yeah, we've since been making our own compost for the veggie gardens, and soaking it all in the liquid fertiliser to speed things up. You're totally right.

[@rad7142]

@@cornerstonevalley Hello, I garden with as close to a closed system. My carbon in put is mainly from mushroom substrate as I grow oyster mushroom. Which is my process of fastening of the carbon breakdown process and yes the worms smash it my ferts are MS from JADAM etc. When you said a litre a day A DAY from such little input and you get gas too,BRO! winner winner. OMG dude just thought biochar/charcoal. to activate it you soak it in...could a be revenue stream for you maybe inoculated biochar. The reason people can have a poor first season with biochar is they didnt inoculate it

[@cornerstonevalley]

@@rad7142 That's so cool! Here's how we make our biochar. kzbin.info/www/bejne/iauaeo2jatSWmZYsi=5TPbggnK28fSn4hW

[@scottdc2105]

I suppose your purposefully not adding in your humanure which still has plenty of food for the bacteria left in it. You may want to give it a try because your doing something with it and not getting the benefit of the gas. Also if the gas bag storage will only hold so much gas and then vent it you can put another type of storage in the output line such as an air mattress or inverted drums in water bath.

[@cornerstonevalley]

Thanks Scott, yes, looking at different options at the moment. I am thinking I'll compress the gas into a 20kg gas bottle ever time the bladder is full. It will be very versatile once it's in the bottle.

[@scottdc2105]

@@cornerstonevalley I was just looking at vacuum/air pumps to pump the gas and found that the small air pump from a free junk keurig will work good. It will provide 8 to 23 psi of pressure and is 12 volts so can run from an inexpensive solar panel. At that pressure that should essentially double the volume of a tank or create 1 1/2 volume of usable pressure.

[@cornerstonevalley]

@@scottdc2105 Thanks Scott, I appreciate the information!

[@s.gardner9145]

Thanks for the info. I have already purchased one and been wondering if I've done the right thing 😬 I did getthe toilet though and aim to put system in a greenhouse over winter.

[@cornerstonevalley]

No problems, I'm glad it helped. We haven't had any problems with the until itself, they are built well. I would be really keen to hear how the toilet goes. Do you get snow in the winter?

[@s.gardner9145]

@@cornerstonevalley no snow where we are, but close by so gets very cold.

[@paulkillian911]

Thanks for the information.

[@cornerstonevalley]

Glad you found it useful Paul!

[@cornerstonevalley]

Glad you found it useful Paul!

[@kreynolds1123]

Where one does not have a lot of food waste, one can supplement with grass clippings to get more biogas production. Even though a small digester may come with warning not to use grass clippings because it takes longer to digest, its no big deal because your digester is already under utilized. Just add a few grass clipping and let it digest longer. It will be fine. My wife and i hardly have any food waste and im considering making a digester for grass clippings, and maybe ocasionally suplement with food waste. It should not be too hard to make and add inline supplemental gas bladers.

[@cornerstonevalley]

Thanks Keith, yes, Ive heard that before. Making a secondary bladder or compressing the gas into a cylinder is high on my priority list.

[@jonahvimeo4276]

The math behind is important. 1 kg biomass = 20-40 litres of gas = 0.12 to 0.24 kWh = 0,048 EUR of profit from 1 kg of biomass at present average EU price of elecricity of 0,20 EUR / kWh

[@cornerstonevalley]

Thanks Jonah! I've never seen it expressed like that, makes a lot of sense.

[@btblou]

Thanks for sharing. Don't know how remote you are, could you pickup restaurant food waste once a week to bump up the gas production. I have seen some people storing extra gas in air beds when their home biogas was full. You can figure it out; look forward to an update with your solutions :)

[@cornerstonevalley]

Thanks Btblou! Yeah, we have two pubs that aren't too far away, that would be an option. Next step for me is to plumb it directly into my BBQ and see how long it lasts cooking using all the burners. From there I want to compress the gas into a 9kg gas bottle, but I'm a bit nervous about blowing myself up😅

[@Rob.P]

Some burners are more efficient than others. Maybe a different burner could get a little more out of the gas. Hope it helps 👍

[@cornerstonevalley]

Thanks Rob! Thanks for the tip! I've recently plumbed it into a bbq with a wok burner here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jWjcf5dsp9SjeLs It seems to be a bit more efficient, but my next step will be a small windbreak.

[@Rob.P]

@@cornerstonevalley Good idea. I will have a look at your video 👍

[@TheDeadMan3848]

You could put your own human waste in it as well, also add a storage vessel

[@cornerstonevalley]

Thanks! I've been thinking about adding a IBC tank as a secondary storage to boost the capacity.

[@kreynolds1123]

The IBC tank is great for additional digester capacity. An additional bladder may be made from plastic bought at the hardware store and plastic weld the seams to make a sealed bladder. A sheet of plywood with a few rocks ontop would supply a little pressure to run your stove.

[@cornerstonevalley]

@@kreynolds1123 Yeah, I like the idea of an ibc, easy to move around if needed as well. Forklift tynes on the tractor are very useful!

[@tomkelly8827]

Ever tried adding grass clippings or leaves?

[@cornerstonevalley]

They say that grass clippings produce very little biogas but take lots of time and energy to break down and to avoid it.

[@prashantdevadiga6696]

Use Napier Grass as feed. It's Magic ❤️

[@cornerstonevalley]

Thanks Prashant! I've never heard of it. Should I chop it up finely before I put it in?

[@douglaswindsor120]

It's interesting that they compare it to a cow's stomach but they say don't feed it grass but what do cow's eat

[@cornerstonevalley]

I thought the same thing. I guess the biggest difference is a cow can pass solids whereas this will only get rid of the liquid overflow. Either way, I'm happy with how it's going.

[@giannislionettis9959]

I think you can put and grass in it ..so you have grass next to you, use it to have a better produce..

[@cornerstonevalley]

Thanks Giannis, I would love to be able to use grass. However the manufacturer advises against it in the home biogas unit. Check out their FAQ here: www.homebiogas.com/product/homebiogas-2/#tab-382faq Thanks for the thought!

[@giannislionettis9959]

@@cornerstonevalley at biogas you use,what ever the cows sheep's horses are eating.. where did he saying that you can't use grass? I don't think so..but ofc it's up to you what you like to use.. and if you see videos with ppl that having biogas years .. there are using and grass.. The biogas it's working like the stomach of those animals. So what ever they eating you can use it to produce.

[@cornerstonevalley]

@@giannislionettis9959 yeah, I would have thought so as well. In the link I sent in their FAQ section, they say not to use grass, because it takes a long time to break down. Have a read. I might try one day, but for now I'll follow the instructions.

[@772777777777777]

Add human waste and grass clipping into it

[@steven7891]

Thats good advice mate, thanks. How much area do you think you could fertilise and improve with the right dilution of the concentrate?

[@cornerstonevalley]

Good question! I killed my mountain pepper with the liquid fertilizer when I first started using it at a concentration of around 60-80%. Since then I've been much more cautious and only using around 10%. So using it at that and it producing around 1L a day we cover around 4-5 watering cans worth of watering.

[@tomjonker-eo8hl]

Great video, what size biogas did you buy? and if you're putting in 1-1.5kg of food scraps per day how much gas are you getting from that? their website says 1kg of food scraps is about an hour of cooking? also since making the video did you find any solutions?

[@cornerstonevalley]

Hi Tom, thanks, glad you enjoyed it. We got the biogas 2. The full bladder gives about 2.5hrs of burn time. The rate of generation is hard to gauge, depending on temperature. I'm an hr north of Sydney, so it never gets super cold. Also, Ive been using the burner outside, and the flame gets blown around quite a bit because there's very little pressure. So inside would give you better results. Here's what I've been playing with since . kzbin.info/www/bejne/jWjcf5dsp9SjeLssi=dTvi_W2tPXvZFVrV Good luck!

[@tomjonker-eo8hl]

why is the rate of generation of the gas so difficult to gauge? etc if you're feeding it the similar amount of food scraps per day/week couldn't you gauge the average amount of gas usage?@@cornerstonevalley etc 1kg of food scraps per every 2nd day and then you get x amount of cooking time

[@cornerstonevalley]

It's takes about two days to completely fill back up at the current rate at warmish weather. A full bladder gives about 2.5hrs of burn time.

[@julzhepburn3688]

Id like to know the capacity of the gas storage ,,as you know its about 2 1/2 hours gas ,, As i have horses ,im interested in this ,can it work on manure alone ,,? As my food waste is very low and i have chicken for that.😁🐔

[@cornerstonevalley]

Hi Julz, I'm not sure of the capacity in litres sorry, it might be on their website. Yes, it'll work great on just manure, but it has to be slurry with water before adding. The home biogas website has all the amounts you can feed the system perday.

[@Abreolhus69]

Do you need to clean it from time to time and empty it?

[@cornerstonevalley]

Totally worth an email to home biogas! I'm not sure, I would have assumed that there would always be some level of sludge buildup in the bottom, but there isn't any easy way to clean it out.

[@teresaholland4790]

I would get food scraps fro local restaurants

[@cornerstonevalley]

Thanks Teresa, yeah, might be a good option. I'm not sure if restaurants seperate their food scraps, I'd need to be careful of how much oil was in them.

[@eastcoastnews9529]

Can you use dog poop 💩? With grass clippings and such ??? Maybe put some live yeast ???? Help

[@cornerstonevalley]

Thanks! Yeah, Ive done dog poo slurry before, seemed to work quite well.

[@sandrinakeffufal6008]

Fantastic video thanks, I am also in Australia and wondering where you bought it from and what brand is it?

[@cornerstonevalley]

Thank you! We bought it online from www.homebiogas.com/ They seem to be the only ones doing it well for small scale applications. Good luck!!

[@sandrinakeffufal6008]

@@cornerstonevalley Thanks so much, it's certainly cheaper than a compost toilet (if using the toilet attachment), and you get free gas! Unfortunately not health dept approved (yet)

[@cornerstonevalley]

@@sandrinakeffufal6008 yes, they're great. You can make a composting toilet without too much effort and quite cheap. kzbin.info/www/bejne/pqfbd5t_q6eoeMk Not super nice looking as others you can buy, but functional.

[@sandrinakeffufal6008]

@@cornerstonevalley thanks for the tip and the link, that looks like the perfect set-up and you could certainly use it full time if you had enough buckets. We needed to be health dept certified so bought a Clivus Multrum EcoLet NE which is basically the same thing but with a $1,600 price tag!

[@cornerstonevalley]

@@sandrinakeffufal6008 yeah, you've done well, being certified is always better when dealing with council, especially in the long run.

[@mostawesome9610]

In all the videos I watch regarding the home biogas system they tell exactly how much waste to add each time to get maximum output. U should add ur family's poop too u will have better gas production, respect

[@cornerstonevalley]

Thanks mate! We'll need to give it a go.

[@victorroux493]

Does the digester smell

[@cornerstonevalley]

Hi Victor, there is a activated carbon scrubber on the outlet which works well. However, when we don't use the liquid fertilizer enough and it builds up, it smells. It's not a terrible smell, but it not pleasant. Quite mild. Our digester is about 3m from our house, they recommend 5m.

[@Fresh-uc9vb]

do you put all your human waste and toilet paper in?

[@cornerstonevalley]

Hi fresh, no I don't. It would boost gas production no doubt. They sell one with a toilet connected now.

[@CCoburn3]

Rabbits. That's what you need to produce feedstock for the biogas generator.

[@cornerstonevalley]

Thanks for the tip! Coincidently, we are planning on doing meat rabbits, never thought about using the carcasses in the biogas.

[@CCoburn3]

@@cornerstonevalley I meant rabbit poop. Though the parts you don't eat (skin and viscera) MIGHT work as feedstock. You will feed your rabbits, and they will create copious amounts of waste. It is a simple matter to place a tray under the cages to catch the urine and feces. These trays can be emptied into your digester. And when you process the rabbits for eating, the parts you don't use can go into the digester too. Though having bones in the digestor will mean you have to empty it more often. You might just want to confine yourself to using the viscera in the digester.

[@cornerstonevalley]

@@CCoburn3 ahhh, thanks. That makes sense, thanks for the tips.

[@CCoburn3]

@@cornerstonevalley You're welcome. Good luck with the rabbits. (Another tip on the use of rabbits. Since the meat will be almost fat-free, you can dry it and make pemmican -- if you are interested in long-term survival food. It might make a good video. While there are a few videos on making pemmican, they all use beef or venison for the meat. A video on making pemmican with rabbit might get quite a few views.)

[@Theoldindie]

set it up so the poop from youre family of 5 goes in there and you will be able to cook all youre diners and more...

[@cornerstonevalley]

Thanks Giovanni, yeah, we have thought about trying to set it up to do that. I'll put up a vid if I ever do.

[@Blaxland02]

Mate you can use chicken poo as well. Get some chooks and you'll be making heaps of gas in no time

[@cornerstonevalley]

Thanks Alza! I would, but as crazy as is sounds I can't have chooks at home because of the biosecurity at my work!

[@Blaxland02]

@@cornerstonevalley ahh, that is brutal 😭 Best of luck with it all mate and thanks for the informative video

[@cornerstonevalley]

@@Blaxland02 Thank you for the positive vibes!

[@tomkelly8827]

Also why not add your human manure?

[@cornerstonevalley]

Been thinking about it, they now offer a product that is fed directly from a toilet.