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Eva Wymm
Mar 123 min read

Biogas - A Household Fuel

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration 30–40% of food in the United States is wasted. Instead of wasting such an astonishing amount of food (and all the effort required to produce it), we can convert our residue into energy by feeding it to biodigesters of different scales, local and industrial. Biodigesters provide hermetic environments that decompose biomass and biosolids through anaerobic digestion until methane (also known as biogas) is all that is left.


Industrial complex biodigesters used by diary farmers in Michigan, milkmeansmore.com


Biomass is everything from recently living organisms, like, for example: wood, wood residue, agricultural residue, manure, and our food residues.


Biosolids, which refer to the nutrient-dense sludge recovered from wastewater treatment plants or from our local homemade poop.

 

Since biomass and biosolids are organic matter we inevitably produce every day, biomass is a cheap way to produce electric power and gas fuel. This process provides renewable energy, requires no mining, and can help mitigate the effects of climate change by lowering the amount of polluted methane that would otherwise be produced by food scraps in landfills.


Maybe you've heard of methane as a pollutant made in landfills, but actually, methane produced by biodigestion is very different and much cleaner than methane produced by food scraps that rot in landfills. Biodigested methane has no - or very few - impurities. This methane, also known as biogas, is ready to be used; while biogas from landfills needs to be purified beforehand, a costly process that also has a large carbon footprint. So though both are called methane, they're very different. In fact, biogas has been classified as a source of renewable energy since its production and use cycle is continuous - and it produces no net carbon dioxide.


Of course, big industries and the public sector have caught on to the cheap and renewable benefits of biogas through biodigestion. Michigan has spearheaded a transition from wastewater treatments plants by installing biodigesters, aiming to cut expenses related to cleaning wastewater. What's more, the effect is two-fold because biodigesters not only reduce expenses related pricey purification systems, but they also allow companies and states to provide (and sell) renewable electricity from biogas. In fact, biogas can also be compressed and packaged as a source of fuel for vehicles.


Here's what Michigan's three immense multimillion dollar biodigesters look like:


Biodigester complex

Grand Rapids, Michigan, expected to cut costs and increase revenue with an 85 million dollar biodigester complex. mlive.com


In the private sector, dairy farmers have also installed biodigesting systems in large industrial complexes. The dairy industry found a way to redeem cow manure for a profit leveraging state-of-the-art biogesting technology. Farmers use biodigestors to power their operations and can also sell surplus electricity or biogas as a source fuel. So, by investing in biodigesters, enterprises and states can lower their costs, and potentially create a profitable business that entails selling a renewable energy source that works with low cost inputs.


But nowhere in the world are food scraps more common than inside kitchens. So, biodigestors in industrial kitchens are perfectly suitable. In fact, PowerKnot, an industrial design and tech firm in Silicon Valley, sells sustainable waste solutions including biodigesters for industrial kitchens. But the story gets really interesting; PowerKnot technology allows biodigestion to occur in 24 hours. As a result, biogas for stoves can be produced right inside the kitchen of the restaurant that consumes it. All in a single day. A totally circular and continuous supply chain... stunning. Changing the perception of food scraps, from waste or residue, into a source of power is a productive step we are ready to make, and to invest in.


Again, so perfectly designed, nature made abundant food scraps a potential source of power. Humans are incredibly capable, and it's exciting to consider ourselves at a stage in history where we have the education, understanding and technology to create our own electricity using techy biodigesters, whether at home or at work. Biogas is cheap, eco-friendly, and, marvelous way to become independent from external power grids that are controlled, taxed, and mined for. Electric independence is possible with a home biodigester. Renewable energy is much simpler - and closer to home - than it seems.



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