Re: DIG-L: The current discussion

["Jim Groman" <jgroman@varec.com>]

Dear Bryan,

Thanks for the comments.  Sorry I got a little bit on the defensive here.  I
understand we do have a lot of people that watch Jerry Springer and
professional wrestling!  I think your comment about the majority of people
not being interested unless it puts money in their pocket is true in most of
the world, with the exception of developing countries where the major goal
is to put food on the table in which case AD can offer a multitude of
benefits.

The best source for finding municipal waste treatment plants in the U.S, is
the EPA.  Each of these plants is required to have a discharge permit as
most of them discharge the large amount of water generated to a river or
other natural water source.  I requested this list from them about 7 or 8
years ago, but I can't remember exactly which part of the EPA I got it from.
Maybe someone on the list can help.  This list showed all the wastewater
treatment plants in the U.S., and divided it up into aerobic and anaerobic
systems.  As I recall, there were approximately 4000 - 4500 large scale
anaerobic plants.

The largest capacity plant in the U.S. is currently (or will be soon) the
Hyperion plant, which treats the sludge from the city of Los Angeles.  It
will have a capacity of around 2.2 Billion Gallons/day (I think this is
about 8.3 Million cubic meters / day).  Gut feeling is that most plants are
in the 1 - 10 million gallon/day range, with probably about 20% in the 50 -
250 million gallon per day category.

I will respond to your other questions directly due to their commercial
nature.  Although it is difficult to quell my sales instincts, I will try as
I believe the philisophical and technical nature of this group is what makes
it so usefull!

Best Regards,

Jim Groman

----- Original Message -----
From: Brian Smyla <ssg@vnet.net>
To: <jgroman@varec.com>
Cc: <digestion@crest.org>
Sent: Tuesday, February 22, 2000 7:00 PM
Subject: Re: DIG-L: The current discussion


>
> Jim Groman wrote:
>
> > Just a few notes on the current discussion.
> >
> > 1) We are not unwashed masses and I resent the implications.
> >
>
> Jim, I think you missed the point of my post.  Please read the entire
> thread and you will see that I was responding to a suggestion that we
> try to educate the general population about the benefits of AD.  My
> point was that the majority of people in the US are, in fact not
> interested in learning something new unless it puts money in their
> pocket or has something to do with sex.  I say this because I deal with
> them every day.  My intent was not to insult.  Unless of course you
> watch jerry springer, then you'd fit into the unwashed masses
> category... ;-)
>
> >
> > 2) AD is in wide use and acceptance in the U.S.  We may not have a lot
of small units but I would be willing tto bet our digestion capacity is much
higher than anywhere else in the world.  Our use of anaerobic
> > digestion tends to be in large scale municipal plants, although there
are smaller scale commercial plants, and a tendency towards building more.
During the '70's small scale farm digesters were being promoted in the
> > midwestern U.S., but after a number of accidents involving biogas due to
its flammabilty (which by the way, I have never seen anybodyin this group
show any cocern about the flammable nature), many farmers were
> > reluctant to use this technology.
> >
>
> I was not aware of the extent of the digestion capacity of the US.
> Perhaps you can direct me to some resources that I can use to locate
> these large scale municipal plants?  I'm also interested in learning
> about commercial organizations that build and install some of the
> smaller scale plants as well.
>
> >
> > Best Regards,
> >
> > Jim Groman
> > Inside Sales Manager
> > Vapor Product Manager
> > Varec Vapor Control Inc.
> > 714-229-3230 Phone
> > 714-952-2701 Fax
> >
>
> Jim, I visited your web site at http://www.varec.com, and I'm impressed
> with the equipment that you have available.  Please add single lot
> pricing to your online product 'catalog' so that I can determine if your
> company's equipment will be suitable for any of the small digesters that
> I'm considering building.  Thanks!
>
> -brian
>
>
> DIGESTION List Sponsors, Archive and Information
> http://www.crest.org/renewables/digestion-list-archive
> http://www.crest.org/renewables/biomass-info/
> Beginners Tour of Biogas
> http://WWW.roseworthy.adelaide.edu.au/~pharris/biogas/beginners
>

DIGESTION List Sponsors, Archive and Information
http://www.crest.org/renewables/digestion-list-archive
http://www.crest.org/renewables/biomass-info/
Beginners Tour of Biogas
http://WWW.roseworthy.adelaide.edu.au/~pharris/biogas/beginners