Affluent Effluent
30/04/08 19:10 Filed in: BioGenCool | Biogas
Extract from Environment Canterbury, Living Here, April 2008.
A novel way of recovering energy on dairy farms is helping the environment. BioGenCool, installed as a pilot unit on a Landcorp Farming dairy unit at Eyrewell, North Canterbury, not only produces electricity from cow effluent but also produces biogas, ice to rapidly cool each day’s milk, and a more easily applied pasture fertiliser.
The man behind the award-winning system is electrical power engineer Ian Bywater.
How does it work? Manure from the dairy shed holding yard is heated. This helps natural bacteria convert it into a mix of methane and carbon dioxide. That biogas is then piped into a generator that burns it with 15 percent diesel to make electricity. It also powers an ice-making machine that rapidly cools the milk from each milking.
Since installing the demonstration unit at Eyrewell, Landcorp Farming is considering installing similar units on at least two of its other dairy units and they may patent the design.
A second patent is pending on the system’s method of recirculating effluent, which saves water and makes a liquid fertiliser which is low in bacteria, so can be spread easily over paddocks in preference to raw effluent.
A novel way of recovering energy on dairy farms is helping the environment. BioGenCool, installed as a pilot unit on a Landcorp Farming dairy unit at Eyrewell, North Canterbury, not only produces electricity from cow effluent but also produces biogas, ice to rapidly cool each day’s milk, and a more easily applied pasture fertiliser.
The man behind the award-winning system is electrical power engineer Ian Bywater.
How does it work? Manure from the dairy shed holding yard is heated. This helps natural bacteria convert it into a mix of methane and carbon dioxide. That biogas is then piped into a generator that burns it with 15 percent diesel to make electricity. It also powers an ice-making machine that rapidly cools the milk from each milking.
says Ian.“Integrating the three concepts together is the novelty,”
“Plus the fact that we have a remote monitoring and control system. The dairy farmer has nothing to do. It’s all automatic.”
Since installing the demonstration unit at Eyrewell, Landcorp Farming is considering installing similar units on at least two of its other dairy units and they may patent the design.
A second patent is pending on the system’s method of recirculating effluent, which saves water and makes a liquid fertiliser which is low in bacteria, so can be spread easily over paddocks in preference to raw effluent.
says Ian.“It doesn’t repel the cows and you don’t have to rest the pasture for so long before re-grazing,”