Spend any time around livestock and you’ll quickly realize that they produce a lot of … well, poop. Sure, it makes a fine fertilizer but managing and disposing of it is a major challenge for livestock and dairy producers – not to mention community leaders, soil and water conservation districts, regulatory agencies and regular citizens. Waste from livestock operations impacts soil, water and air quality. The patented Andigen Induced Blanket Reactor (IBR anaerobic digester) is part of a system that can accept agricultural production (farming & ranching) and processing (food processors) waste and convert it to energy and modifies solids in the waste so that a stable, compost like byproduct can be made from them. The compost product is like renewable, sustainable peat moss.

Technology: The original design was based on the high rate Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket (UASB) reactor that was initially developed for widespread use in the Netherlands but the UASB always plugged when using animal manures. The IBR design has been able to solve the plugging problem and retain the slow growing anaerobic bacteria within the digester, thus creating a faster rate of digestion. The principle of operation of the IBR is to capture solids in an enclosed vessel with a certain height to diameter ratio. The IBR system includes a septum near the top of the tank. The septum is cone shaped with an aperture in the center. The septum is always submerged in liquid (anaerobic environment).

Reliability: The high failure rate of on-farm anaerobic digestion was one of the motivating factors leading to this invention. According to a 1998 study 70% of the complete-mix digesters had failed. 68% of the plug-flow digesters and even 17% of the covered lagoons had failed. (Lusk, P., 1998. Methane Recovery from Animal Manures - The Current Opportunities Casebook. NTIS U.S. Dept of Commerce). Because of the simplicity of the design (using a slowly rotating auger in the top of the tanks to eliminate plugging) we were able to build a more reliable digester. By separating the gas bubbles from the bacteria with a septum in the top of the tank we were able to retain bacteria and increase the concentration of bacteria in the lower portion of the tank (we kept the bacteria from floating on out of the tank).

Parasitic energy demands:

The unit requires about 8% of the electrical energy generated to run the system. Manure is heated using waste heat from the engine generator set.

Summary:

Advantages of the Andigen IBR system as compared to other anaerobic digester (AD) systems would include the following:

1. The Andigen system is the only high rate (short hydraulic retention time) AD system that we know of that is being commercialized for farms at this time. High rate digestion produces higher quality biogas including averages of 5% to 10% higher methane content and lower H2S and CO2 levels.
2. The Andigen system is the only modular system on the market. The system can be built for small or large farms. Or a dairy could start small with a small waste treatment system and have the treatment system grow with the dairy.
3. The Andigen system is the only system that can purge sand without shutting down, thus eliminating the problem with sand build up.
4. The Andigen system is the only system that has patented anti plugging technology built into it.
5. The Andigen digester tank has only one moving part that is easily accessible from the top of the tank.
6. The Andigen system is able to quickly respond to upsets. Recovery in most cases in less than two days. If there is a lengthy problem the problem can be isolated without shutting down the whole system.
7. The Andigen system has the smallest physical footprint.
8. The Andigen system is adaptable. It is easily modified for a variety of purposes such as the addition of amendments and hydrogen production (patent pending).
9. The Andigen system usually produces a better quality of solid and liquid residual material
10. The Andigen system can be monitored remotely over the internet. Several parameters(pH, temperature, feed rate, gas production and etc) can be checked and/or changed by a remote monitor.At the Ballard Farm, the waste from 4,400 pigs is digested by a "blanket" of bacteria in 30,000-gallon milk tanks, 44 feet high and 14 feet in diameter. The resulting methane produces up to 80 kilowatts of electricity, enough to meet the needs of 80 average homes.
11. The electricity is wired directly onto Utah Power's grid. The power company pays Ballard Farm 6 cents per kilowatt hour, meaning the farm could make as much as $42,000 per year from its hog waste.

Recent Awards:

2006: Recognized as successful technology resulting from USDA section 9008 Grants. Helena Chum, Senior Advisor, National Bioenergy Center, at the National Renewable energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado.
2007: Awarded first place for innovation of a mechanical device at the Utah Innovation Awards. This award was presented at the Stoel Rives/Utah Innovation Awards May 10, 2007 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
2007 2: Carl and Conly Hansen also received the AE 50 award from the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ABASE) for having one of the 50 top innovations in the world. This award was presented at the Centennial ASABE International Meeting held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, June 19, 2007 (google AE50 awards).

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