A biogas plant converts biological waste into energy. It can use anything from livestock, chicken or human waste to agricultural compost or plant clippings. When these things decompose, they create methane. A biogas plant is a technology to capture these methane emissions and burn them to create more useful products. Does this Spark an idea?
Energy Production
The most common use of biogas plants is the production of electricity. Biological wastes are contained within a large container that directs the methane released by the waste into a chamber where the methane can be burned. The power produced by this burning is used to turn turbines that create electricity. This electricity can be used on site or can be introduced to a municipal power grid and used in the same way as any other electricity source. An additional side benefit is that the waste, following the burning of the methane it releases, can be used as fertilizer for agricultural crops.
Heating
A side effect of burning waste methane for electricity is that the burning produces heat in addition to the electricity created by the turbines. This heat can be captured and used for space heating or other purposes. The technology takes advantage of something that is wasted in massive quantities in most industrial applications: the incidental heat that is created by all processes of burning or mechanical motion. Increasingly, newer and more efficient industrial processes are realizing that utilizing this heat can reduce pollution and simultaneously save money.
Methane Reduction
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, methane released into the atmosphere is a greenhouse gas that is 20 times more potent than the more common carbon dioxide. A biogas plant -- by capturing the methane and converting it into electricity or heat -- transforms the methane into carbon dioxide that is released from the plant as the waste from burning. Although it is still releasing greenhouse gases in the form of carbon dioxide, the biogas plant is reducing the damage that would have been caused by the raw methane by something like 95 percent.
Smell Reduction
A common complaint of neighbors who live next to some agricultural businesses, particularly pig and chicken farms, is the smell created by the masses of waste produced by the animals. Burning this waste in a biogas plant, in addition to providing electricity, heat and a reduction in methane release, can also radically reduce the intensity of the smell that escapes from these places.
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