Anaerobic digestion catches on in Europe, and a UK trade industry, the Anaerobic Digestion and Biogas Association (ADBA) argues that this technology could produce 20% of Britain’s energy supply cheaply and efficiently. “Anaerobic digestion is a mature technology, with thousands of facilities up and running in European countries with a better track record at dealing with waste, but currently there are only 30 or so plants operating in the UK,” writes Sam Bond at edie. The potential is huge: the ADBA predicts that farmers, local business owners, and municipalities will build almost 1000 new Anaerobic Digestion plants in the next 5 years, at a cost of several billion dollars.
Those plants would together harness enough energy to meet 60% of Britain’s renewable energy targets by 2020, and 10% of the kingdom’s overall energy needs. Lord Redesdale, Executive Chairman of ADBA, claims “Britain will fail to meet its renewable energy targets without rapid building of a nationwide anaerobic digestion infrastructure.” ABDA believes the industry will eventually employ 20,000 – 40,000 people, producing up to 20% of Britain’s domestic gas supply. How do we…err…break this down for you? Anaerobic digestion creates biogas, a fuel that’s also a byproduct of decomposed organic materials. Those materials are stripped down by microorganisms in specialized factories at high temperatures. Biogas is actually really similar to landfill gas in terms of the amount of energy gained. Usually, landfill gas is obtained by municipal waste or solid biomass burning. But that’s pretty harsh for the environment, as toxic substances like mercury, chlorine, and plastics are also burned. Using the anaerobic digestion process allows us to avoid releasing those chemicals into the atmosphere. “There is also no problem with tar and carbon residue disposal and no require expensive gasifiers. Otherwise, landfill methane production has two main advantages: lower production cost and wider range of feedstock,” says the Energy Type Blog. Stateside, dairy cows might be the savior for New York City’s public water system, and another practical use for anaerobic digestion is exhibited This great article from CleanTechnica details the NY Dairy Summit, which hopes to replace damaging natural gas drilling with our bovine friends within 20 years. “NewYork City is fighting to save its drinking water supply from potential contamination by new natural gas drilling operations, and some unlikely heroes may be ambling to the rescue. Dairy cows are being recruited to provide sustainable manure-derived methane biogas to power homes in New York State. Along with other alternative energies, renewable methane could reduce the demand for natural gas, and forestall the potential danger to water supplies posed by unsafe natural gas drilling operations.” MedIndia wrote, “Summit attendees set a 2020 goal that 40 percent of all manure from New York dairy farms goes through the anaerobic digestion process, which captures methane from manure and generates clean, renewable energy. The energy produced from this effort could power 32,000 homes while strengthening the economic vitality of New York’s dairy farms. It also would reduce New York’s greenhouse gas emissions by 500,000 metric tons of carbon, equivalent to taking 100,000 cars off the road.” Mooove over, natural gas!
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