chicken litter digester

marvella · #1 04/15/10, 12:25 PM

heard this on npr this morning and thought it was intersting. i prefer the idea of biomass for energy to other ideas for alternative energy sources. it could well be the salvation of the american farmer.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...r---=125640525

Logan considers himself a conservationist. So he turned to the idea of a manure digester, which is something cattle ranchers have been using to turn cow manure into energy. In the past, chicken manure had been mixed with other manure types and then converted into energy, but it had never been used on its own.
Logan worked with researchers and scientists at Mississippi State University to develop and patent the first successful chicken poop digester.
Now, every day, 4 tons of chicken manure are fed into the digester, which resembles a silo. The poop is heated, then mixed with bacteria, which produces the methane gas that is then converted into energy.

Forerunner · #2 04/15/10, 12:30 PM

This can also be done with yard waste, wood chips, municipal sludge and organic "garbage", among other things.

Amazing what could be done to the benefit of the people if there was any desire to do so coming from where tax dollars go.

Harry Chickpea · #3 04/15/10, 01:00 PM

Logan is a sleeze rip-off artist if he thinks people will buy that "In the past, chicken manure had been mixed with other manure types and then converted into energy, but it had never been used on its own.
Logan worked with researchers and scientists at Mississippi State University to develop and patent the first successful chicken poop digester."

Back in the 1970s, I bought a demand gas valve from Harold Bates of England, who had successfully been using chicken manure processed ON ITS OWN into methane, and driving his car on it.

I loathe "researchers" who knowingly denigrate previous creative people. A plain thief will only still what you might have at the time. People like this steal the legacies of the dead. They are worse than grave robbers.

**fordson major** · #4 04/15/10, 06:18 PM

the college i am attending is working on turning wood into oil! 1 in for 5 out!! and it burns just like diesel!

marvella · #5 04/16/10, 09:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ford major

the college i am attending is working on turning wood into oil! 1 in for 5 out!! and it burns just like diesel!

i forget the name of the college but there is an art school in nc that built pottery kilns on top of a landfill. they use the methane gas to power the kilns.

as i said, alternative energy might be a real boon for farmers. their waste can be turned into fuel, giving them another income source.

**fordson major** · #6 04/16/10, 08:04 PM

most definatly!got a local BTO who is building a methane digester thing when i told him he should run tubes of water though his silage piles and heat water!

rileyjo · #7 04/17/10, 06:46 AM

A methane digester is just a big mechanical cows stomach.
The end product is methane which is drawn off and burned. The gov't dudes around here love to give seminars on this stuff but dont seem to want to put the money into making them happen. There are a couple of pig farms across the water from me that have built MD's to deal with their waste products.

Old Vet · #8 04/17/10, 11:58 AM

Everything is new to those that don't know. In India they use those for cooking gas. Have been doing this for at least 20 years.

ldc · #9 04/17/10, 02:25 PM

Fordmajor, when I was a student in Britany 30 years ago, the dairy farmers were doing what you described, running pipes of water thru piles of manure to heat it, and also using the methane as fuel. ldc

geo in mi · #10 04/17/10, 03:42 PM

Best chicken manure digestor might be the free range pasture of a much smaller flock, but that doesn't seem to be possible anymore.

||Downhome|| · #11 04/17/10, 04:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Harry Chickpea

Logan is a sleeze rip-off artist if he thinks people will buy that "In the past, chicken manure had been mixed with other manure types and then converted into energy, but it had never been used on its own.
Logan worked with researchers and scientists at Mississippi State University to develop and patent the first successful chicken poop digester."

Back in the 1970s, I bought a demand gas valve from Harold Bates of England, who had successfully been using chicken manure processed ON ITS OWN into methane, and driving his car on it.

I loathe "researchers" who knowingly denigrate previous creative people. A plain thief will only still what you might have at the time. People like this steal the legacies of the dead. They are worse than grave robbers.

I was going to bring up Bates also! he used chicken manure by its self but noted that a little swine waste add in produced the best, that is I remember right.

Honeymoon Acres · #12 04/17/10, 08:35 PM

At a chicken feed mill I had the misfortune to witness and smell an experimental boiler that burned chicken manure. It would bring tears to your eyes. That experiment didn't last long before they switched back to natural gas. Maybe they should just make their own gas.

fishhead · #13 04/18/10, 07:53 AM

There's a dairy farm in Elk River MN that converts it's manure into methane and then runs a generator with it. The electricity is used on the farm and the excess is sold. That's nothing new. A pig farmer in Africa did something similar except he used the methane to power an engine that turned a long shaft with pulleys to be used for feed grinding, etc.