Probably most people know that when organic matter such as kitchen waste rots, it can produce flammable methane. As a source of free energy it’s attractive, but making a biogas plant sounds difficult, doesn’t it? Along comes [My engines] with a well-thought-out biogas plant that seems within the reach of most of us.
It’s based around a set of plastic barrels and plastic waste pipe, and he shows us the arrangement of feed pipe and residue pipe to ensure a flow through the system. The gas produced has CO2 and H2s as undesirable by-products, both of which can be removed with some surprisingly straightforward chemistry. The home-made gas holder meanwhile comes courtesy of a pair of plastic drums one inside the other.
Perhaps the greatest surprise is that the whole thing can produce a reasonable supply of gas from as little as 2 KG of organic kitchen waste daily. We can see that this is a set-up for someone with the space and also the ability to handle methane safely, but you have to admit from watching the video below, that it’s an attractive idea. Who knows, if the world faces environmental collapse, you might just need it.
We tried to do the exact same thing 28 years ago in school. We didn’t have any good concept for storing the gas since we did it inside, so it was scaled down and never produced any significant amounts of it. In the end we were happy to see the temperature rise inside the fermentation tank.
Scale is a key factor in stable operation of this low tech biotechnology, especially with varying inputs. There’s a large and mostly good literature from both the survivalist and sustainable technology types on these types of methods. These systems can work well (with some effort) using waste flows from somewhere between a small family or a few households up to an entire municipality.
Who runs Bartertown?
All the content of My engines is geat. If you have any interest in stirling engines, he is the most dedicated youtuber on this subject. He is to the stirling engine what Huygens Optics is to optic.
A very old technique indeed, dating back from thousands of years, like in Persia 16th century A.D.
It´s easy and low-tech, there are many kits available.
16th century A.D. is not back “thousands of years”.
While it sounds great on paper, it’s worth bearing in mind that methane has a global warming potential many tens of times higher than CO2. So any leak at all in this system will result in climate change emissions that will be worse than just using fossil fuels.
this like comparing going for a walk to crashing a wall with a racing car at full speed…. sure you can go the same distance.
You forget one thing: this organic matter would have rot and decompose anyway. This is just a capture device for that methane that would have been anyway released, so it´s all good.
Like people going crazy about burning forest biomass (fallen branches, dead trees, pine needles, etc.) to produce energy in hot climates (ie Mediterranean). “But, but, all the CO2!”. If you don’t manage it, all that biomass will create more forest fires and be release in huge amounts at the same time.
The organic matter would have decomposed under aerobic conditions if left outside, so it would decompose directly to CO2 instead of methane.
That scenario rarely happens, organic matter (human trash, vegetation, etc.) pile up, get mixed with water, get heat and start rotting releasing methane. Some trash landfills recover the methane naturally produced to supply part of their energy needs.
“Would you like to play a game ?”
That is true however rate of change matters. We are warming many orders of magnitude faster than we would naturally. This makes adaptation much more difficult.
The longer it takes, the longer people will try to subsist in areas that are destined to become uninhabitable, while whining for money from the state.
“Oh no, the hurricane took my house again. Instead of moving elsewhere, I’m gonna rebuild right here and whine about climate change to gain sympathy and handouts.”
What the hell is wron with you?
So much for empathy. You might be the next victim of an extreme drought, flood, sinkhole, fire, or/and hurricane you know.
Much of the blame lies with insurance companies only paying out for reconstruction exactly as it was before. There will also be leaders concentrating political power in the name of responding to those natural disasters in a more timely way. It is a recipe for tyranny. To make a dramatic, but relevant comparison; it was just a few Germans whining about war reparations, until an ex-con named Adolf took over and the public said, “well, let’s see what this guy can do!” We can debate whether you might be victim-blaming, but eventually whining becomes voting, or complete apathy…
Well the global nature of climate change puts a wrinkle into the running from the problem solution.
@Ostracus
Not really. Ever wonder why the US is so interested in Greenland and Canada? They’re mostly ice, right? Start thinking ahead.
And I will be straddling the roof of my house yelling “Strike me baby!” at the thunderclouds.
AI needs power so bad that “Global Warming” is no longer a problem.
“So any leak at all in this system will result in climate change emissions that will be worse than just using fossil fuels.” And you know this how, Professor? Meanwhile, buttplug aren’t just for pervs anymore! But first, kill all cows. And fish.
Anything to steer away my grandma from the compost pit. Yes it helps the vegetable garden but every time I walk by, the smell…
I used to just accept the smell, which was surprisingly localized even though i put it about 12ft from a window. But then i decided every time i smell it, i turn it over with a shovel. Takes less than a minute. Just mix everything together and bring the bottom to the top. It hardly smells at all the day after i do that. YMMV
Had to read that a couple of times. It kind of sounds like you are composting your grandma.
I believe that’s now legal in Oregon (after she’s passed that is).
Very academic and well done. No doubt we’re making excellent quality gas. I wonder why are we using cleaned gas (with all this effort and consumable material) to power an external combustion engine? And it’s a delightful engine to be sure. Maybe solid oxide fuel cells will be a hacker thing one day? Or are they already? I hear they like clean gas.
2kg of organic matter waste a day seems like a lot, even for a family.
Still a fun way to show you can make fuel from plant sources. Wonder how it compares to just eating food and running a bicycle based generator.
Eggs + beans + beer + time.
Secret ingredient:
X-hot KimChi.
Also helps if the eggs aren’t super fresh and the beer is cheap.