The Rural Voice, 1979-08, Page 8Manure Management
liquid manure
from digester
effluent tank
hdd manure here
Digester
gas utilization
I0
n
ICOM rsmoverr
m
002E M2S removal
livestock barns during the winter months and can also be used in
air conditioning those same barns during the summer months or
in running refrigerator units or evaporator coolers or to generate
electricity in an engine -driven generator.
Despite the fact both Jack Pos and Jack Underwood know that
on-farm methane production has its drawbacks, it's also obvious
both men are excited by the potential.
Jack Pos recently visited an Oklahoma methane -production
plant where manure from three huge feedlots is sent through
digesters, each 100 feet in diameter. The effluent goes back on
the land as liquid manure and any reclaimed solids go back to the
feedlot as food while the gas is sold to a company who puts it into
their power grid. But even this plant is still largely experimental
in nature.
Jack Pos said when he answered letters from farmers asking
for information about methane gas production, "I wanted to turn
off alot of people who thought that this was the salvation of the
(agricultural) industry."
Jack Underwood cautions if you're interested in researching
alternate energy sources like methane gas production. then
"you're going to have to change the overall philosophy of how
you're going to go through this life." For the farmer, that means
keeping his farm operation at a very manageable level so he has
time to fool around with alternate energy experiments - a
lifestyle which Mr. underwood believes "might be for the best."
Someday, when the engineers work out all the bugs, and when
enough willing researchers and innovative farmers spend time
and money experimenting with digesters, methane gas
production will be feasible. But, until then, the agricultural Code
of Practice for Ontario states "methane production . . is
technically feasible, but almost all Wormed authorities are
convinced it is not economical at this time in our climate."
PG. 6 THE RURAL VOICE/AUGUST 1979
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