Manure Digestion and Gasification

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Manure Digestion

The objective of this Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) project activity is to upgrade an existing manure digester and perform on-site testing of various co-substrates.

Public concern regarding the disposal of manure is growing. Farm scale and combined agricultural/municipal anaerobic digestion technologies can address this issue but have failed in Canada due to many hurtles unique to our climatic, environmental, and economic conditions. Research and Development (R&D) of technologies that reduce GreenHouse Gases (GHGs) and create energy from agricultural wastes is necessary. This will reduce the risk to the Canadian farming community and ensure that these technologies become viable under the domestic environment. This activity consists of monitoring and improving the performance of an imported digester technology under Canadian operating conditions. The digester technology will be tested and modified to stabilize current operation and handle fluctuations in biogas quality when different co-substrates are introduced. Other initiatives include examining the possibilities and limitations of adding co-substrates to the existing digester and designing required hardware changes and additional storage facilities for co-substrates. This activity is linked to a project being funded by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's (AAFC) Environmental Technology Assessment for Agriculture Program which will examine the impact of digestion on the fertilizer value of digested manure.

The introduction of viable technologies to convert manure to biogas to produce electricity and heat offers producers potential energy autonomy and added income when the energy is exported. GHG benefits in terms of gas mitigation, fossil fuel displacement, and nitrous oxide (NO₂) loss reduction will result from this research.

Manure Gasification

Anaerobic Digester at Klaesi's
Farm

The objective of this NRCan project activity is to evaluate the performance of a fixed bed (down draft) gasification process as a means of converting manure to biogas. This research will focus on ways to increase the production of gas from manure.

The technology best suited to gasification of manure at a local level is fixed bed (down draft) gasification. A down draft gasifier is relatively simple equipment and as such, is well suited to small-scale local use. This activity consists of modifying an existing down draft gasifier, installing furnaces for manure gasification, and testing manure at different moisture levels. A primary focus of this study will be on modifying the gasifier design and reporting on optimized manure gasification techniques. This will include the development of a database relating manure properties to syngas production.

This research extends the capability of gasification units currently focused on straw and wood residues. A number of companies (and some private farms) have started initiatives for developing similar units for agricultural wastes. Through the capture of methane and fossil fuel displacement, significant GHG reduction is anticipated from this research.