Re: DIG-L: Fwd: biogas and current list.

["D.J.Fulford" <d.j.fulford@reading.ac.uk>]

Janet,

At 22:18 01/05/00 -0700, "Shawneefrms" <Shawneefrms@prodigy.net> wrote:
>>    I  have been reading alot about using biogas for cooking, heating, 
>> refridgeration, and electrical generation, but where the heck does one 
>> find the appliances that will run on biogas?  Also, is there anyone in 
>> the US who has successfully built a small biogas digestor? Perhaps 
>> similar to the ones which use plastic bags as digestion chamber?  
Biogas cooking etc. equipment is commercially available in the areas where
it is used extensively, which is India, Nepal and China. There are
manufacturers in India who have been making biogas burners since the 1970s.
I would need to check up on addresses if you wanted them, since it is some
time since I was involved directly in this work. 

>>I mean, 
>> what does one do in the winter?  I live in Nebraska, so I am thinking, 
>> "gee, wouldn't that whole set up freeze come December or January?"  It 
>> always seems like these nice simple do'em your self digestors are all 
>> somewhere off in Cambodia, or China, or Africa somewhere.  
Actually India, Nepal and China, but also a growing interest in Cambodia
and Vietnam. The various African programmes have not really been as
effective as the Asian programmes. The main reason why these countries have
biogas is that labour is cheap, the climate is hot and people are used to
handling dung.
There was a very effective research programme in the early 1980s at Cornell
using an insulated, heated bag digester that ran happily when the weather
was cold. The idea was to use dung from cattle lots to generate energy, but
the commercial costs were too high for the benefits derived, so it was not
followed up.

David Fulford.



*** Dr David Fulford, Energy Group, Department of Engineering  ***
***      The University of Reading, Whiteknights,              ***
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