[USCC] Eggs & capturing energy

[John A. Crockett]

Following up on what Art Krenzel said, that: 
"The contents of whole eggs (good or bad) are perfect for a biogas digester.

The shells could be added to a compost or worm pile for mineral recovery..

Composting is an energy wasting process - biodigestion is an energy
producing process.  Some things have another use before we commit them to
the soil."

We have composting process technologies that enable us to manage the
composting process so that we have massive surplus microbial metabolic heat
to capture, and the technology to capture that heat.  Our preliminary
research shows that we can capture at least 750 BTU's per cubic yard of
compost, per hour, when the composting process is "aggressively managed".
Aggressively managed refers to the pre-processing, and providing forced
aeration so the CO2 level is maintained between 1 - 2%, as well as process
management.  

We're about to start another round of research that will give us a better
idea of how long into the composting process we can continue to capture that
much heat.  We know from our in house research last winter that the
bacterial phase yields that much heat.  Though we had thought that the
fungal dominant phase would not yield massive heat, last winter we were
pleasantly surprised to find fungal densities far greater than we had ever
seen, and yielding far more heat than expected.  

We've upgraded and tripled our heat capturing compost research silo
capacity, and are ready to collect and pre-process the feedstock, and load
those compost research silos.

We're talking about composting food residuals,  I question whether yard
waste would have enough biological potential to support the microbial
populations that yield that much surplus microbial metabolic heat.  Early
research suggests that our process management enables us to have over 45
times more active bacteria than traditionally managed composting.  We
frequently have over 3.0E+9 active bacteria, per gram, dry weight, in the
early stages of the composting process.  I'd like to hear what other people
are getting. (That's 3 billion active bacteria, per teaspoonful)

2,000 CY of very active compost translates to 15 million BTU's per hour.  In
a temperature zone like where I live, that is enough heat to heat 9 acres of
greenhouses through the coldest winters.  IF enough Anaerobic Digestion is
integrated into the facility to yield enough bio-gas to power a couple of
micro-turbines to provide all the electricity for the facility, including
grow lights for the greenhouse...   The opportunities are there, waiting for
innovators to unleash them.  

Nine acres of greenhouses can grow quite a bit of organic produce, to feed a
lot of people, without needing to truck the produce thousands of miles from
field to mouth. (Much of the produce consumed in New York is grown in
California)



Working Together to Create a Sustainable Environment,
John A. Crockett, a.k.a. Dr. Mike Robe
Mother Nature's Farms, Inc.
(845) 225-7763
http://www.magicsoil.com/
jac at magicsoil.com