[Digestion] Microlagae feedstock $350 Million Project!

[adkarve]

Dear Readers of DIGESTION at listserv.repp.org,
Please note that fecal matter is not the food of the methanogens. The
methanogens are found in dung because they are thrown out of the body along
with the dung. Because these bacteria live in our intestines, they eat what
we eat. Therefore, addition of any starchy, sugary, fatty or proteinous
matter to the feedstock would increas the methane production dramatically.
One kg of sugar or starch yields 250 g of methane. The methanogens cannot
however digest cellulose. Therefore, if you used a cellulosic material as
feedstock, you would get only half as much methane per kg dry weight,
because the methanogens have to take the help of cellulolytic bacteria to
first break down the cellulose, before the methanogens can attack it. With
the cellulolytic bacteria eating a part of the food, the methane output is
halved. When you use dung, there are most probably half a dozen species of
bacteria that act on the dung to break it down. That is why the output of
methane from dung is rather low, just about 60 g per kg dry weight. One
would get more than four times as much energy from dung, if it were dried
and burned. It is not at all surprising that in the third world countries
dung cakes as used as fuel.
Yours
A.D.Karve
> > What they do, is - from their own explanations of the benefits of their
> > system - use higher temperatures AND then they ADD to the cow manure to
maximize
> > methane production.
> > What they add, they do not say.  But, from their numbers, it does work.
> >