Biogas

I have been throwing around this idea of biogas in the lifeguard room to see what kind of stink I can make. First, read these articles. They give a great intro to the technologies and show how viable these pojects are. I like the last one best.

http://www.boiseweekly.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A161471

http://www.magicvalley.com/articles/2006/09/01/news_localstate/news_local_state.4.txt

http://drivebeyondoil.typepad.com/blog/2006/09/manure_the_smel.html

Basically, the idea is that if all dairy and pig farms (and possibly others) could build their own digesters, we could see many wonderful outcomes.
1. Fewer green house gases will be produced. Manure naturally gives off methane which is more than 20 times worse than CO2 as far as green house gasses go. This gas under normal conditions will slowly be released into the atmosphere. Using an anaerobic digester will concentrate and collect the methane keeping it out of the air. Methane, also known as natural gas, burns clean; so any power generated by burning it is cleaner than power generated by burning coal, gasoline, or oil.
2. Prices for meat and dairy products will drop. As farms add these money making systems into their programs, the cost for producing their products will decrease. Basic costs such as electricity and heat are also covered by the power generating methane they collect. When over all costs decrease, so should overall prices.
3. The overall power grid will be strengthened. The power grid has many fail safes and alternate power sources, but it still has difficulties providing an adequate supply. Having many diverse power generaters tied into the grid will help provide stability to the overall system.
4. Fewer drilling plants for natural gas. If all farms could produce methane to put into the gas lines, there would be a huge decrease in the need to drill new gas wells. Biogas is completely renewable which means no new wells needed when the gas dies out.
5. Fewer pollutants. Manure is traditionally put into ponds to allow the hazardous bacteria time to die off or spread over farm land as fertilizer. Both ways are now being looked at as possible sources of dangerous pollutants. Anaerobic digesters kill off dangerous bacteria before it can enter any soil while the byproduct is still usable for fertilizer.

The ultimate idea, along the same lines as above, is to use household waste or green waste to produce biogas. Every home throws away vegetable trimmings, food scraps, as well as grass clippings and leaves. All these items can be used to produce biogas (don't forget to include the waste that restaurants and groceries stores produce). I propose that Each household should be equipped with three garbage cans. One for regular waste, the second for recyclables, and the third for green waste. The green waste would then be taken to a local digester (which believe it or not doesn't stink or have any degrading visual properties beyond that of any modern factory) where either natural gas or electricity is produced. Many sewage treatment plants currently use this technology to supply all their heat and electricity which reduces the overall cost to you the tax payer. Millions of homes could be powered by small local biogas generators that run on nothing more than the waste that those homes generate.