Cost Effective and Reliable Anaerobic Digestion for Agricultural By-products

The current problem with on farm anaerobic digesters is the high failure rate. Some failures are do to plugging because of the viscous and heterogeneous nature of agricultural animal waste. Other digesters have been abandoned because the management of the digester was too difficult or required to much time. The purpose of this project is to develop a novel method along with the machinery capable for treating agricultural animal waste and viscous biomass by anaerobic digestion (AD). A new technology termed the induced blanket reactor (IBR) will be developed to control plugging, solve design problems and control bacterial growth within the digester. The proposed technology employs a mechanical apparatus controlling materials within the digester tanks, thus creating a much faster rate of digestion. This technology could also effectively treat food processing waste such as cheese whey when it is combined with animal manure. The proposed process will reduce odor, kill pathogens, avoid soil or water pollution, and produce energy.