Television Studio Bio-digester system

Crew food waste today becomes the gas to cook on tomorrow.
An update on our television studio - crew food waste biodigester.
Added a second IBC to collect the "compost tea" from the unit and a closed loop, vented air displacement system so there is no odor associated with this indoor (located in Canada) system.....future plans for bigger system yet to come!
Plan to process up to 56 litres of food waste a day and eliminate over 26 tonnes of greenhouse gas a year. Win for the film industry, win, win for the environment!

[@MrSeebobski]

Show more of plumbing and fitering on wall please ✌️ nice build

[@krzysiekbutowski]

The most "clean" job i have seen on youtube movies. Good job. Hope it works well.

[@dylantkl]

Thank you so much for showing this. It's really interesting and informative. I might consider using your setup for a biogas digester.

[@piotdab9580]

Thank you I've been suffering with this problem for weakes. But thanks to you it now works!

[@gregwhiteside7045]

Piot Dab - what problem were you having exactly? Glad to have helped! :)

[@piotdab9580]

Greg Whiteside I've had 3 problems cycling effect, smell and from time to time the diaagester was filling it self with oxygen I don't know why but it was doing that. Thanks to your method, solution it is running over 2 months without any problems : ) one more time thanks

[@foodsecuritystructurescana4440]

Anaerobic Biodigestion is an oxygen free process. The digester container must be filled completely with liquid to eliminate any air (oxygen) from being in the container. Otherwise the methanogens and pathogens inside they digest the food waste will die. So when the black container is properly loaded (filled) then each day when you add new food waste to feed it, the black digester pushes out the same amount of digested (biodigestate) fertilizer into the white fertilizer storage tank beside it. The methanogens inside the black container consume the food waste you put in today and convert that to biogas (methane and CO2) that you can burn for cooking or energy and into a tea like liquid fertilizer concentrate that you can use to grow more food.

[@stevenwieler2990]

Wicked stuff Greg! Keep em' comin!

[@nickchase4534]

Like the idea of having the smell "trapped"

[@lionelroger626]

Super !!!!!

[@DavidJohnson-dc8lu]

Very clean system, but how did you get gas when the gas bag was empty? Any outlets needed for overflow?

[@foodsecuritystructurescana4440]

The bag wasn’t completely empty, there was 50-100 litres in the bag. The plumbing system setup includes a simple water pressure release. This is just an inline tee on the gas line to the bag. The gas passes through this tee. The branch off at the tee fitting hangs down and a short piece of gas line poly pipe is attached to this. The short piece of poly ends in a container or bottle that is filled with about 4 inches of water. The container or bottle is not sealed at the top so overflow gas is released and so you can add water as needed as it evaporates slowly over time. When gas is generated it takes the easy route through this tee fitting to the bag and fills it up, when the bag is completely filled and the gas generated in the biodigester can no longer flow into the bag, the gas pressure is forced down the tee into the water and bubbles out safely as a pressure relief. The water also keeps the bag filled to maximum until I can get a chance to use it. This is not ideal, since it does release small amounts of methane rich biogas into the atmosphere, but it does act as a simple safety valve that saves the storage bag system if left unattended for a period of time

[@MatthewTaylorAu]

nice idea. can you draw a schematic / diagram of how the piping is connected and height levels. Just to eliminate confusion. Thanks.

[@gregwhiteside7045]

I have added more details about this build and plumbing to the “solar CITIES biogas innoventors” group on Facebook. A biogas makerspace group I follow of over 11,000 people around the world. Join the group and search my name Greg Whiteside to see the posts.

[@mrwingman6201]

hello, how long will the biogas burn? and how do you clean it inside? how often has it to be cleaned?!

[@gregwhiteside7045]

Depending on the device you are using the gas can last for various amounts of time. A one burner cooking stove on full uses about 10 litres per minute, so if you have made 1000 litres in the bag (a full bag) then you have about 100 mins of cooking time. A small 3500 watt biogas generator uses about 60-100 litres per minute so you would get 10-20 minutes of electrical run time run time. Gas production depends on the type of food waste you use and the temperature of the tank. We are in Canada so the digester needs to go inside. The digester is always full to prevent any air from inside. This is an anaerobic process so no oxygen is allowed inside or the process stops. Every time you add food waste the same amount of organic fertilizer is pushed out and into the second fertilizer holding tank. It never needs cleaning, ever. The methanogens and pathogens inside consume everything, just at slower rates for more dense organics. We use the food grinder or for home use you can use an old blender or juicer from Goodwill to help speed up the process by “pre-chewing” the food and breaking the organics into smaller pieces, mix with old soup or milk or juice or a bit of water to make it into a biodigester smoothie before feeding and it will be very happy. All fats and oils going inside float to the top region and are consumed rapidly, when broken down the remaining water and nutrients float down to the mid level in the black tank. (The neutral or fertilizer zone) Heavier organics do the opposite, they settle on the bottom and are consumed more slowly, and as they are processed inside they become lighter and 100% of the food’s nutrients float up to the same neutral zone region in the tank. The piping set up inside makes sure that the liquid pushed out when you add new food waste is drawn from this neutral (completely processed layer) within the tank. 100% of the nitrogen, potassium, vitamins and minerals from the original food waste is captured in this water density liquid (biodigestate). It is a super concentrated, organic fertilizer that can be used to grow more food. Closing the loop in food waste recycling and capturing the methane (a greenhouse gas that is 20-25x more dangerous to our atmosphere than CO2) that would normally be released into the atmosphere through traditional composting or sending the food waste to landfill.... It is a natural, organic fertilizer and so rich in nutrients that it can be diluted with water 20:1 before application....so 1 litre of biodigestate from this process makes 21 litres of natural (odour free) biodigestate or compost tea as we like to call it. When we capture and then burn the methane, the energy is released and the by-product is CO2 and water vapour. Since this is the same CO2 the original organics took in to grow, this is a carbon neutral process. No CO2 is added to the earths atmosphere and this CO2 can now be used by the next crop of plants as the building blocks of plant cells to make more food. I have a new build going into an indoor vertical farm here in Canada. They will use the biodigestate as a liquid nutrient base for the plants inside and burn the biogas to supplement the heating bill in the winter and the CO2 from the plant waste will be captured inside to raise the CO2 levels in the grow area so the plants will grow faster, to make more food. Go to Solar Cities Biogas Innoventors and practitioners on FB. Search my name at the top, I have posted pictures of the latest build and I mentor many farmers and builders around the world on there to teach them how to build their own biodigesters with what they have available and how to convert existing LPG devices to run on safe, low pressure biogas. Let me know if you have any other questions and thank you for watching my video.

[@mrwingman6201]

Greg Whiteside thx for your super cool answer, this does help me to understand more and more the process of making biogas. right now we are with our motorhome driving round europe, and i always thougt how to use our toilet stuff. at home i want to try it, and thats funny, cause i am also starting to grow inside our hydroponic fodder and some microgreens. i wish there would be a small traveling solution to make biogas, but thats maybe to small to use it. thank you very much for your answer. i appreciate that.

[@torstenbrandt3630]

I want to built my own. What kind of pump do you use to pump the gas into your stove? Is it a special pump for gas? What brand is it ?

[@gregwhiteside7045]

Puxin or teenwin make biogas pumps, but it can be any diaphragm pump you can find. This unit is 10 litres per minute. Puxin also makes a solar powered version

[@tun0fun]

@@gregwhiteside7045 Thank you for replying to this comment. Came to ask the same!

[@apinhmi]

Nice video. Great work man. Question:. What is better, 1 big system like 10tonner bio digester or 10 smaller system of 1 tonner container? Appreciate you very well thought of response. Thank you! GBU! Farm produces 15 tonner chicken dung.

[@gregwhiteside7045]

Maximum you can feed a biodigester is 1/30 of the biodigester volume per day. Feeding more does not produce more gas and will not process the waste enough to get the gas and fertilizer quality. Also you will need other food waste and animal dung to feed. Chicken dung is too acidic and high in alkaline and could stop the digester from working if you only feed it chicken dung.

[@apinhmi]

@@gregwhiteside7045 copy thanks for the info. Yes I'm aware of it. I will have to get the dung daily instead of one bulk loading. Not just kitchen waste but farm waste but all will be shredded. Like rice hay, leaves dried and fresh.

[@gregwhiteside7045]

Try not to put in dried leaves or wood, they will float inside the digester and could cause blockages and they do not digest well. Manures, food waste and green plants or green leaves can be ground or cut up and placed inside to digest

[@127cmore]

Is the bag not a bit dangerous ?

[@gregwhiteside7045]

No not at all Biogas is not explosive like hydrogen or gasoline vapours. The biogas only burns where it contacts the oxygen, it is very low (almost no) pressure. So if we stick a match or flame right in the bag, it goes out (no oxygen) if we poke a hole in the bag and hold a flame to it, it only makes a candle flame right where the hole is and that burns until the bag is empty. If you add pressure to the bag, it blows the flame out. Biogas is very very safe. In Africa they sell big bags with shoulder straps on them so people can come fill up with 1000 l of gas and carry the bag home on their back.

[@127cmore]

@@gregwhiteside7045 Thanks for your reply. So could this 1 tank power a house or would you need a few connected together ?

[@gregwhiteside7045]

It can generate around 1000 l of gas per day. So if using for a single burner stove (which consumes around 10 l per minute) then you can get about 100 mins of gas for cooking per day....I have converted an on demand water heater and barbecue and single burner stove, you can use biogas in a heater and even get an adapter plate to run a generator on biogas. It’s all scale-able just add more digester tanks and then you would need more food waste

[@127cmore]

@@gregwhiteside7045 thanks for your advice

[@matthewthegardenassistant8314]

I personally wouldn't want to risk pushing air into the first tank.

[@gregwhiteside7045]

Not sure what you mean Matthew. The white tank is just effluent (fertilizer) the black tank is the anaerobic digester (biodigester) The food waste goes into the funnel and the pipe extends all the way to the bottom of the tank before exiting into the digester. There is almost no way to push air into the black tank. When the gas bag is full, I use a simple water filled relief valve to let excess gas bubble out so the bag cannot burst from over pressure

[@matthewthegardenassistant8314]

Hi, I was a bit worried about the air that is displaced to stop the 'siphon effect/affect', to stop all the liquid emptying out. I can see why it is necessary to stop that flow. However, if you put a lot of material in to the digestor you are potentially introducing a lot of oxygen air into the first tank. That could be explosive. The same for the gas in the bag. I know that methane is introduced to the bag all the time and that would potentially displace the oxygen suffiently, there is still a risk with what is in the bag. The gas mix might not be what you want. You just might have to be a bit careful with how you light the contents of the bag to test what is in it. You don't want the whole bag to explode. You wouldn't want the container to be caught with the wrong gas mix either.

[@gregwhiteside7045]

Matthew Redden actually the outlet pipe also starts inside the tank in the middle layer of the digester (the zone where digested liquid resides after heavy solids have been digester and after light fats and oils have been digested. There is no danger or way for oxygen to enter backward through the liquid down two feet into the tank and then rise back up to the gas outlet area. The siphon effect tee is always used and has no biogas (ch4 and methane) mixed or accessed at any time , in the design. Biogas is not explosive or pressurized like hydrogen. It cannot backflash or explode in a storage bag. The only point of flame is at the base of where the biogas and oxygen meet. If you were to poke a hole in the bag near an open flame the only thing that would happen is a small candle sized flame at the hole (where the biogas and oxygen meet) which would burn until the biogas was all used up. An open flame inserted directly into the bag would be extinguished due to the lack of oxygen and high CO2 ratio of biogas. B energy and other NGO’s make and sell large bags with shoulder straps for people in Africa to go and collect gas from a communal digester and then take it home that way to use in their biogas stoves at home. Very safe and low to no pressure.

[@matthewthegardenassistant8314]

@@gregwhiteside7045 Is methane produced by the effluent when it is in the second tank? That would be a risk surely.

[@gregwhiteside7045]

Matthew Redden the effluent is pretty much exhausted by the digestion process when it enters the second tank. It still contains some ch4 (which accounts for the slight odor left over. Any gas still being generated is not enough to inflate the air displacement bag or to cause any issues with the air in the empty (in the beginning) effluent capture tank. As I said before, there is no danger in testing the gas generated in the beginning to determine when the CO2 generated in the first weeks transitions into burnable biogas and is storeable. It is not like hydrogen or gasoline vapour as it does not backflash or explode. It is used and shared freely on plastic and rubber bags for transport in countries around the world (there are over 4 million homemade biodigesters and gas storage systems in China, India and Africa have embraced this resource as a way to eliminate well water contamination (by eliminating manure or human waste and food waste from entering the water table) and to improve the health of women and children by eliminating indoor burning of manure or wood to cook on with a free food waste resource

[@edkwesicharman2761]

so can siphone effect hinder gas production and collection

[@foodsecuritystructurescana4440]

Siphon effect will just empty (siphon) all of the biodigester into the fertilizer (effluent) storage container once it starts to flow into the white container. So the goal is to stop that flow when you finish adding new food waste to the digester.

[@edkwesicharman2761]

@@foodsecuritystructurescana4440 should the setup tank be left idle for a period for gas production start before continuing to feedstock it and if so for how long?

[@foodsecuritystructurescana4440]

Yes Inoculate with a fresh manure (cow, horse, pig, human) 1/3 manure and 2/3 water. Keep warm and do not feed again until you get burnable gas. Usually takes 21-30 days. First gas you get will be just CO2 and it will not light. Empty your gas storage each week and try to light the gas. When you can light the gas, then it is time to start feeding the digester. Each day you feed it, do not feed more than 1/21 to 1/30th of the digester size (divide the digester volume by 21 -30) based on how long it took you to get burnable gas. Feeding more will NOT make more gas....that is how long it takes the methanogens to digest the food and produce gas so only feed the volume they can handle a day.

[@edkwesicharman2761]

@@foodsecuritystructurescana4440 Again how much water should I add to the feedstock

[@foodsecuritystructurescana4440]

Ed Kwesi Charman 1/3 manure and 2/3 water. For the entire digester. This black digester is always full to the very top with liquid. There can be no air space inside of it. Fill it until it comes out the effluent tube and then wait the “inoculation” period

[@codybuswell3589]

Email to reach you at?

[@gregwhiteside7045]

[e-mail]