Bio Gas

What comes out of the back end of a cow?

Milk and manure. The cows at the Audet family's Blue Spruce Farm make almost 9,000 gallons of milk a day — and about 35,000 gallons of manure. With the help of their power company, Central Vermont Public Service Corp., the Audets have devised a way to extract methane from the manure and pipe it to a generator. They make enough electricity to power 300 to 400 average Vermont homes.

How can electricity be made from cow manure?

If cow manure is pushed into a long, narrow tank and held around 100 degrees, in about 20 days bacteria will digest the manure into methane gas and a liquid slurry. The methane can run an engine and generator to make electricity. A dry, odor-free, fluffy brown substance that is used as bedding for the cows can also be extracted. The remaining liquid contains enough nutrients that it can be used as fertilizer for the farm's feed crops.

Do farms in Minnesota make electricity from manure?

Since late 1999, the Haubenschild farm has been converting their cow manure into electricity. At first they, too, digested manure producing methane which fueled a generator to produce electricity. Then, on Jan. 27, 2005, for the first time anywhere in the world, the methane was fed into a fuel cell.
A fuel cell is like a battery. A chemical reaction generates the electricity. It is totally quiet, and the only waste product is clean water. Haubenschild said it costs 5.1 cents per kilowatt hour to produce electricity from the fuel cell and Great River Energy will buy the surplus electricity from the fuel cell for four cents per KWH. If Minnesota power companies can create a progam similar to Vermont's Cow power program, customers willing to pay a couple extra cents per KWH would allow farmers to make money instead of losing money.

cow power facility located on the 1,200-cow farm

 animal waste-to-energy portfolio can generate 300 kilowatts of electricity to power 220 homes. Most of the anaerobic manure digester facilities in the Dairyland system can generate 775-840 kilowatts of energy, enough to power at least 600 homes. 

How does animal waste-to-energy work?

Cow manure is collected and heated in the digester tank, a process that creates methane gas. This biogas fuels a large engine to produce renewable electricity. The process also has additional environmental side benefits, reducing animal waste problems associated with manure disposal on farms. The odor is reduced, and weed seeds and pathogens are killed during the digestion process, thus lessening the need for herbicides and pesticides on the farm. Another useful byproduct is bedding that can be used in the dairy

Biogas and anaerobic digestion

 Biogas production by anaerobic digestion is popular for treating biodegradable waste because valuable fuel can be produced while destroying disease-causing pathogens and reducing the volume of disposed waste products. The methane in biogas burns more cleanly than coal, and produces more energy with less emissions of carbon dioxide. The harvesting of biogas is an important role of waste management because methane is a greenhouse gas with a greater global warming potential than carbon dioxide. The carbon in biogas was generally recently extracted from the atmosphere by photosynthetic plants, so releasing it back into the atmosphere adds less total atmospheric carbon than the burning of fossil fuels.

Biogas typical composition range

The composition of biogas varies depending upon the origin of the anaerobic digestion process. Landfill gas typically has methane concentrations around 50%. Advanced waste treatment technologies can produce biogas with 55-75%CH₄ ^[1].

Biogas composition^[2]

Matter	%
Methane, CH4	50-75
Carbon dioxide, CO2	25-50
Nitrogen, N2	0-10*
Hydrogen, H2	0-1
Hydrogen sulphide, H2S	0-3
Oxygen, O2	0-2*

Animal Waste-to-Energy

Cow Power                                                  

“cow power” facility located on the 1,200-cow farm.

animal waste-to-energy portfolio can generate 300 kilowatts of electricity to power 220 homes. Most of the anaerobic manure digester facilities in the Dairyland system can generate 775-840 kilowatts of energy, enough to power at least 600 homes. 


Cow manure is collected and heated in the digester tank, a process that creates methane gas. This biogas fuels a large engine to produce renewable electricity. The process also has additional environmental side benefits, reducing animal waste problems associated with manure disposal on farms. The odor is reduced, and weed seeds and pathogens are killed during the digestion process, thus lessening the need for herbicides and pesticides on the farm. Another useful byproduct is bedding that can be used in the dairy..............

CALIFORNIA COW POOP POWER

A solution for climate change, a source of New Energy and new income for dairy farmers – what’s not to like?

One of the most frequently used catch-phrases in Washington these days: “Public-private partnership.” It is the way legislation can get through the “big government vs. free market” catch-22.

Making biogas from cow poop is not a complete or perfect answer to the energy security and global climate change challenges. But it's a lot better to be a part of the solution than a part of the problem. Public-private partnerships are a little bit like that.

When something very expensive is needed, like New Energy or new infrastructure, government provides policy and a sort of “down payment” but leaves room for business to come into the market and make a profit.

Public-private partnerships run multiple potential risks. They put government in the position of picking winners. Or somebody’s friends could too easily get at project profits. Government could incentivize technology overly dependent on tax breaks and subsidies.

But when the New Energy and new infrastructure are urgently needed (and they are), the public-private partnership is a solution. In California, farmers and methane processors can work together to generate biogas while leaving the problem of selling the electricity they generate to the utility.

David Albers, BioEnergy Solutions President/Vintage Dairy partner: "This makes much more sense…We're not generating electricity at all. PG&E's doing that."

PG&E estimates cow manure biogas could produce 5% of its electricity need.

What comes out of the back end of a cow?

Milk and manure. The cows at the Audet family's Blue Spruce Farm make almost 9,000 gallons of milk a day — and about 35,000 gallons of manure. With the help of their power company, Central Vermont Public Service Corp., the Audets have devised a way to extract methane from the manure and pipe it to a generator. They make enough electricity to power 300 to 400 average Vermont homes

How can electricity be made from cow manure?

If cow manure is pushed into a long, narrow tank and held around 100 degrees, in about 20 days bacteria will digest the manure into methane gas and a liquid slurry. The methane can run an engine and generator to make electricity. A dry, odor-free, fluffy brown substance that is used as bedding for the cows can also be extracted. The remaining liquid contains enough nutrients that it can be used as fertilizer for the farm's feed crops.

Do farms in Minnesota make electricity from manure?

Since late 1999, the Haubenschild farm has been converting their cow manure into electricity. At first they, too, digested manure producing methane which fueled a generator to produce electricity. Then, on Jan. 27, 2005, for the first time anywhere in the world, the methane was fed into a fuel cell.
A fuel cell is like a battery. A chemical reaction generates the electricity. It is totally quiet, and the only waste product is clean water. Haubenschild said it costs 5.1 cents per kilowatt hour to produce electricity from the fuel cell and Great River Energy will buy the surplus electricity from the fuel cell for four cents per KWH. If Minnesota power companies can create a progam similar to Vermont's Cow power program, customers willing to pay a couple extra cents per KWH would allow farmers to make money instead of losing money.

Solar Power in Mass Production

Concentrating Solar Power Concentrating solar power (CSP) is a form of energy production technology that concentrates large amounts of solar energy onto a small area. Here, the energy density is much higher than that available from just beam sunshine and the efficiencies of its conversion to useful energy (ie electricity or steam) is much higher. There are three main types of CSP including direct intercept dishes, solar troughs and solar towers. Some newcomers to the field include, for example, the Compact Linear Freznel Reflectors. Solarsphere technology combines elements of direct intercept dishes with solar towers and does this with a design philosophy and materials that potentially permit the units to be produced large and inexpensively.
Direct Intercept Dishes Solar Energy Systems, Australia Stirling Energy Systems, USA Schlaich Bergermann partners (Eurodish) See gallery	Image Source: SolarPACES
Parabolic Troughs Eurotrough Solar Energy Generating Systems See gallery	Image Source: SolarPACES
Solar Towers Solar Tres, Spain Solar Two, USA See gallery	Image Source: SolarPACES
Solarsphere Solarsphere Technology combines elements of both direct intercept dishes and Solar Towers. The design philosophy that focuses on spheres and lightweight, thin film materials presents opportunities for concentrators that are large, cheap and mass producible. See gallery	Image Source: Solarsphere

SolarPACES is an international cooperative organisation bringing together teams of national experts from around the world to focus on the development and marketing of concentrating solar power systems (also known as solar thermal power systems).

Greenpeace CSP 2020 This Greenpeace Industry review considers the opportunities for Concentrating Solar Power as a potential solution to climate change.

The Oil Price saving the planet is a deadly business read the novel - wear the t-shirt - visit the website

The 4 metre ball under construction. Image source: Solarsphere

Detail of the 4 metre ball showing the mirror. Image source: Solarsphere

The hot spot from the 4 metre mirror against a rendered concrete wall. The spot is 45cm in diameter and represents a concentration of about 100 to 1. Image source: Solarsphere

The first 8 metre ball clearly showing the construction method using lunes - long strips - of plastic. Image source: Solarsphere

The 8 metre concentrator. Clearly visible are is the intergore region demonstating the mechanism by which the two mirrors are formed. Image source: Solarsphere

The 8 metre Sierra Concentrator Unit with the target in foreground, Image source: Solarsphere

My Clean Sky quality air travel carbon offsets Did you know? Greenhouse emissions produced by jet engines flying at cruising altitude (in the lower stratosphere where it is minus 40 degree cenclius) are up to five time more potent as those produced at ground level. Learn more about aviation emissions at My Clean Sky.

Echo 1 Satellite made by NASA in the 1965s. The 30 meter diameter balloon was made of 0.127 mm thick Mylar polyester film, similar material proposed for the Solarsphere. Image Source: NASA

Solar Energy Generating System (SEGS) at Kramer Junction, California, USA.

A section of the SEGS solar trough.

The powerplant at the SEGS site. The solar energy is supplemented by gas for generating power at night.

Cleaning the solar troughs with water spray. Dust and debris can significantly reduce the energy output from concentrating solar power systems. The volume of water and economic costs should be considered as these are maintenance costs associated. For Solarsphere technology, the mirror will never gather debris becuase it is enclosed. However, the ball is likely to collect dust. For this reason the ball will be designed to automatically rotate in its basepool as necessary, to "wash its face". Automatic cleaning reduces costs.

The Oil Price saving the planet is a deadly business read the novel - wear the t-shirt - visit the website

The Scheffler mirror. This small mirror uses a concentrating heliostat arrangement, like Solarsphere. However, its size is limited by its engineering design and application. This dish is about 10 sqr metres. Image Source: Sun Ovens

The Scheffler concentrating heliostat mirrors in an array for producing steam. Image Source: Sun Ovens

Cleaning a heliostat mirror. As can be seen, considerable effort may be required to clean the mirror surface.

Solar Two, a concentrating heliostat using liquid salt as the energy transfer medium from the hot spot on top of the tower to the steam turbines at the bottom of the tower.

Solar Tower technology at the Solar Research Facilities of the Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS) . A major feature of the Unit is a SolarPower Tower containing a field of 64 large, multi-faceted mirrors (heliostats), each measuring 7 X 8 meters. Each heliostat tracks the movement of the sun independently and reflects its light onto a selected target on a 54-meter high tower. This is the only Solar Tower facility in the world located on a campus of a research or academic institute and is solely dedicated to scientific work. Image Source: Weizmann Institute of Science

Heliostat mirrors from a Spanish Solar Tower project. Image Source: SolarPACES

Heliostat array from E-Solar offers utility scale solar power. Their innovation lies in the use of small, easily managed mirrors and modular solar field design. Image Source: E-Solar

My Clean Sky quality air travel carbon offsets Did you know? Over two billion air passengers fly every year. Learn more about aviation emissions at My Clean Sky.

The Photon Energy Transformer & Astrophysics Laboratory (PETAL) is the world's largest dish-shaped solar concentrator. Using this facility Sde Boqer's scientists will be able to concentrate 400 kW of sunlight to intensities up to 10,000 times stronger than normal noontime sunshine. Image Source: Ben Gurion National Solar Energy Centre, Israel

Dig Dish in Israel demonstrating the eleborate mechanical support structure. Image Source: Ben Gurion National Solar Energy Centre, Israel

Petal (Big Dish) in Israel. The elaborate support structures can be seen behind the two engineers. Note also the concrete annular ring. This picture demonstrates the extensive use of material required for concentrating solar power technology. It is the use of small amounts of materials that give Solarsphere an edge. Image Source: Ben Gurion National Solar Energy Centre, Israel

The Schlaich Bergermann und Partner direct intercept concentration dish formed by a depressurised membrane. The sunlight is concentrated onto a 10 kw Stirling Engine. Image Source: SBP

An alternative version of the Schlaich Bergermann und Partner designed dish. Image Source: SBP

The Oil Price saving the planet is a deadly business read the novel - wear the t-shirt - visit the website

An array of solar concentrators using Stirling Engines.

Close up of the direct intercept concentrators with Stirling Engines.

A direct intercept concentrator with a counterbalance design.

An Australian direct intercept dish technology, the Solar Systems SS20 Solar Electric Generation Unit. Image source: Solar Systems

An engineer checks the reciever head of the Solar Systems SS20 Solar Electric Generation Unit. The SS20 uses water cooled photovoltaics to produce about 20 KW electrical. A later design combined the opportunity to use cooling water for hot water heating purposes rather than just as a heat dump. Image source: Solar Systems

The solar concentrators at White Cliffs, South Australi, developed by Solar Energy Systems. Image source: Solar Systems

My Clean Sky quality air travel carbon offsets Did you know? There is a billion dollar race underway to develop an airliner that does not cook the planet and this includes solar power planes and jet engines that run on algae oil. Learn more about the future of passenger airliners at My Clean Sky.

An American direct intercept dish. This is the Stirling Energy Systems Solar Concentrator. Image Source: Stirling Energy Systems

Reflection of an engineer looking into the reciever of The Stirling Energy Systems 25 kW Stirling Engine. Image Source: Stirling Energy Systems

The 25kW stirline engine used for the Stirling Energy Systems direct intercept system. The picture shows the reciever end of the engine. The spiral metal is the pick up for the hot spot. Image Source: Stirling Energy Systems

The 25kW Stirling Engine. See here is the cooling fan at the rear of the unit. The cooling fan assists to lower the temperature of the condensor. The temperature difference between the hot and cold ends of a Stirling Engine determine the efficiency of the unit. Image Source: Stirling Energy Systems

Another American technology, the The SAIC Sundish with a 20 kW STM stirling engine. Image source: SAIC

The SAIC Sundish in the park position. This position allows offers the system some protection from heavy weather and allows accss to the Stirling Engine for maintenance. Image source: SAIC

The STM stirling engine used to power the SAIC Sundish. Image source: SAIC

The Oil Price saving the planet is a deadly business read the novel - wear the t-shirt - visit the website

Ausra, the latest invarnation of the Compact Linear Freznel Reflector technology (as below). This enterprise benefitting from the support of venture capitalist, Vinod Khosla, recently won large contracts for installation. Image Source: Ausra

Australian Compact Linear Freznel Reflector technology developed by Solar Heat and Power Pty Ltd. This sytem is installed at the Liddel power station, NSW, Australia and preheats water for the coal fired powwer plant. Image Source: Solar Heat and Power

Heliodynamics CLFR system combined heat and power system. Image Source: Heliodynamics

Lloyd Energy solar thermal with graphite storage. Image Source: Lloyd Energy

Developmental solar mirror based on concentric rings of chemically polished stainless steel. Image Source: Solray

The Sun pulse, a innovative water pump using solar concentrator and stirling engine. At the front of the pump is a solar collector; this reflects sunlight towards the middle where it heats up the front of a Stirling Engine. Sunvention's unique design of Stirling engine uses air at atmospheric pressure as the working fluid, and pulses at a slow 30-60 times per minute. The pump can be attached to a rotary pump, or as shown, connected to a hydraulic cylinder. The other end of the hydraulic hose is connected to a hydraulic cylinder attached in this case to an India Mark II Water Pump. Image Source: Sunpulse

eSolar designs and develops Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) projects that start at 46MW and are scalable to any size. Image Source: esolar

SkyFuel, Inc. is a solar thermal power technology and service provider founded in 2007. SkyFuel solar collectors harness solar radiation to produce steam for electricity generation and industrial applications. The Company is a leading supplier of utility-scale concentrating solar power (CSP) systems. SkyFuel currently offers an advanced, glass-free parabolic trough solar thermal collector, called the SkyTrough®. It is the highest performance, lowest-cost utility-scale solar power system in the world. Image Source: Sky Fuel

Sopogy pioneered Micro-Scaled Concentrating Solar Power or "MicroCSP" technologies.  Sopogy's MicroCSP systems cost the same to install conventional Photovoltaic solar systems but increase the amount of energy generated bringing better investment returns to our customers.  MicroCSP uses concentrating mirrors with optics, low cost thermal storage, sun tracking, and a affordable systems installation technique to keep the costs down while delivering a quick payback.  MicroCSP technologies are used to create Process Heat, Solar Air Conditioning or Electrical Power and can be ground or rooftop mounted opening an entirely new market for CSP systems.   Image Source: Sopogy

Solar Millennium is specialised in parabolic trough power plants, a proven and future-oriented technology, in which the Group holds a globally leading position. Besides the three Andasol projects in Spain, a parabolic trough power plant is being built in Egypt . Various further projects with an overall capacity of more than 2,000 Megawatts worldwide are in the planning phase with focus on Spain, USA, China and North-Africa. In the future, solar thermal power plants in the south will contribute to Central Europe`s electricity  supply. Image Source: Solar Millenium

SolFocus has developed leading concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) technology which combines high-efficiency solar cells (approaching 40%) and advanced optics to provide solar energy solutions which are scalable, dependable and capable of delivering on the promise of clean, low-cost, renewable energy. Image Source: Solfocus

Concentrix Solar GmbH was founded in 2005 as a spin-off company of Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems. The company is located in Freiburg in Breisgau. Concentrix Solar further developed the Concentrator PV technology generated from many years of research work at Fraunhofer ISE and brought it from the laboratory to market ready products and advanced it into series production. Under the name FLATCON ® , we offer complete, turnkey concentrator photovoltaic power plants on the commercial level. Image Source: Concentrix

From its founding in 2001, Energy Innovations believed in the promise of concentrated solar. We believed in the promise of higher energy production, lower cost and ultimately, the lowest cost of energy. Today we stand ready to realize that promise. With the introduction of our new Sunflower HCPV solution, we have harnessed the power of 1,200 suns to achieve an astounding 29% module efficiency. But we didn't stop there — with our holistic approach, we also created the world's simplest and lowest-cost HCPV solution to install.  Image Source: Energy Innovations

Amonix is the leading designer and manufacturer of concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) solar power systems which require no water in power production, use land more efficiently, and produce more energy per acre than any other solar technology. Amonix was founded in 1989 and is headquartered in Seal Beach, CA, with additional facilities in Torrance, CA. Image Source: Amonix

Green and Gold's solar strategy is to dramatically exceed the cost effectiveness of existing PV flat panels through focused innovations in both the effective collection of solar energy (peak kWs)  and the generation of maximum annual electric power (kWhs). To execute this program, our design and development teams worked to create the innovative and ground breaking "SunCube™".  Featuring a high efficiency (~31%) solar energy kWh harvester,  smart dawn to dusk "Max kWh™" internal 2 axis sun tracker and "Cool PV™" low operational CPV cell temperature.  Extensive testing has been done around the world to ensure 25+ years of life and high reliability.  Image Source: Green and Gold Energy

Advanced quantum dot nanotechnology high efficiency Concentrator Photovoltaic (CPV) cells at high concentration. Cyrium is committed to enabling the expansion and wide-spread acceptance of Concentrator Photovoltaics (CPV) and now offers the QDEC (Quantum Dot Enhanced Cell) product family of standard cell size products. In addition standard QDEC cells, Cyrium also provides cell performance optimization and customization services through the Application-Specific Concentrator Cells (ASCC) program. The QDEC product family offers efficiency levels of ~40% at >500-1000 suns and a minimum efficiency offering of 38% on a standard 10x10mm cell. Image Source: Cyrium Technologies

Our inflated, balloon-shaped concentrators are key to Cool Earth's innovative design. Each 8-foot-diameter concentrator is made of plastic film—the same kind of plastic film used to bag potato chips, pretzels, and so on—with a transparent upper hemisphere and a reflective lower hemisphere. When inflated with air, the concentrator naturally forms a shape that focuses or concentrates sunlight onto a PV cell placed at the focal point. This means we need fewer cells to produce a lot more electricity. In fact, a single cell in our concentrator generates about 300 to 400 times the electricity of a cell without a concentrator. Image Source: Cool Earth Solar

Sol3g is one of the first companies at world-wide level incommercializing HCPV systems. The company centers its activity in the consultancy, investigation, manufacture and commercialization of third generation photovoltaic systems, particularly specialized in high concentration systems, non-imaging optics and advanced intelligent electro-mechanical tracking and control systems.  Image Source: Sol3g

The Chromasun Micro-Concentrator (MCT) is a next generation high performance solar collector that uses the same technology as utility scale solar systems, except now in a much smaller package. It has been designed purposely for rooftop integration. The MCT is low profile, lightweight and has no external moving parts so it’s simple to mount and easy to maintain. Using a 25X Fresnel reflector optic the MCT generates temperatures up to 400°F (200°C), something you wouldn’t expect from a flat panel solar collector. Perfect for process heat applications and ideal for air-conditioning systems, this exciting product is now in production and ready to deploy on commercial and industrial rooftops. Image Source: Chromasun