Re: DIG-L: RE: exploding digesters?

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

This was related to me by our sales rep in the Iowa / Nebraska area.  There
was a company about 15 years ago, which he believes was called something
like Energy Recovery Systems, which was located in Lincoln, Nebraska.  They
provided long concrete troughs with an expandable rubber bladder for
anaerobic digestion at dairy farms.  They would run this gas to engine
generators.  At the time he attempted to sell flame arresters to them but
their vice president of engineering told him in no uncertain terms that
there was no possibility of a flame flash back and they did not require
flame arresters.  Our rep later heard that this company had gone bankrupt
because of lawsuits against them due to explosions or fires at at least two
sites.

Unfortunately  this was long enough ago that he did not have exact details
on the sites.

Best Regards,

Jim Groman


----- Original Message -----
From: Paul Harris <paul.harris@adelaide.edu.au>
To: West Stewart <philbio@hotmail.com>
Cc: <plusk@pipeline.com>; <John.White@state.or.us>; <digestion@crest.org>
Sent: Sunday, February 27, 2000 7:08 PM
Subject: Re: DIG-L: RE: exploding digesters?


> The Roseworthy digester has a similar story, the top lifted about 12mm
> when some well meaning person closed all the outlets (the brass safety
> valve had to be opened with a heavy hammer some time later, so was
> presumably not operational at the time) but it was not noticed untill
> the reason for no gas production was investigated (ie not very
> spectacular). I have learnt a couple of lessons from this episode - NO
> brass and at least one liquid vent WITHOUT a tap (this is sure to
> attract attention when the liquid outlet gets blocked).
>
> I have also heard of a pig farmer who destroyed a shed of pigs by
> welding near the manure collection ditch, he caused a fire though (not
> an explosion).
>
> West Stewart wrote:
> >
> > Dear John and Phil:
> >
> > The exploding digester story is alive here in the Philippines. It is an
old
> > story coming from a digester in its 10th year or so, that was not
operating
> > well. In addition, the farmer had built over the digester (with a new
pig
> > house).  There was build up of gas in the digester (concrete vessel with
> > concrete cover), and at some point, the pressure caused the lid to 'fly
> > off'. (I think that is an exaggeration.)
> >
> > While you may also have visions of flying pigs,  a la Monty Python, the
> > facts were more cold and hard.  No major damage to the farmer, just
major
> > damage to a local industry that was already negative on AD in the late
> > 1980s. The legacy is a long one, and we still hear the story on
marketing
> > trips in Luzon today.
> >
> > West Stewart
> > PhilBIO
> >
> > >From: "Philip D. Lusk" <plusk@pipeline.com>
> > >To: "WHITE John" <John.White@state.or.us>
> > >CC: <digestion@crest.org>
> > >Subject: DIG-L: RE: exploding digesters?
> > >Date: Sun, 27 Feb 2000 11:32:07 -0500
> > >
> > >Dear John and Group,
> > >
> > >Delving back into the logs of failed farm digesters in the US, I have
not
> > >found any references to "exploding digesters."  I would council that
any
> > >individual having a direct reference to such a system have it carefully
> > >documented and not spread rumors or hearsay about such.  Goodness
knows,
> > >the
> > >digester industry has enough negatives to overcome w/o added more
issues to
> > >overcome to the pile...
> > >
> > >However, if anyone does have documentation concerning "exploding
> > >digesters,"
> > >it should certainly be brought to our attention!
> > >___________
> > >Philip D. Lusk
> > >Resource Development Associates
> > >240 Ninth Street, NE
> > >Washington, DC  20002-6110
> > >tel:    202.546.6283
> > >fax:   202.546.3518
> > >web:  www.biogasworks.com
> > >
> > >-----Original Message-----
> > >From: WHITE John [mailto:John.White@state.or.us]
> > >Sent: Wednesday, February 23, 2000 4:44 PM
> > >To: plusk@pipeline.com
> > >Subject: exploding digesters?
> > >
> > >Hi Phil,
> > >You may have noticed some recent posts to the Digester list saying that
> > >accidents and explosions were a cause of disenchantment with early farm
> > >digesters built in the 70s.  I don't recall reading anything about that
in
> > >your Casebook.  Do you have any information about the risk of digesters
> > >exploding?  I thought this was a non-issue due to the dilute nature of
the
> > >methane until reading these recent posts.
> > >
> > >Regards,
> > >
> > >
> > >John G. White
> > >Oregon Office of Energy
> > >625 Marion St., NE, Suite 1
> > >Salem, Oregon 97301-3742
> > >john.white@state.or.us
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >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
> >
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> --
> Mr. Paul Harris,                                 Dept. of Agronomy &
> Farming Systems,
> ph +61 8 8303 7880,fx +61 8 8303 7979            Roseworthy Campus,
> http://www.roseworthy.adelaide.edu.au/~pharris   The University of
> Adelaide,
> E-Mail: paul.harris@adelaide.edu.au              ROSEWORTHY, South
> Australia, 5371

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