Construct a large solar heater using an insulated structure mounted to the roof and painted black. Fill the interior with brass tubing painted black, and line the interior of the insulating structure with mirrors. Add one mirror above the structure as a back/lid that stands up vertically at the back of the structure. Careful to monitor the suns rays each season and make sure it's not aiming any reflected light at dry flammable materials. Route the pipes through your system and connect them to the in and out on the solar oven.
Hey... I need a one on one. I am a biosystems engineering student. I would like to know more about cleaning the biogas and compressing it to cylinders. Is there anyway we could get in contact
Very helpful. Consider a wood chip compost pile next to the biodigester to keep it warm. I'm planning this inside a small "greenhouse" to heat the digester.
Very helpful video and I very much appreciate your detailed explanation. We own a farm and we have lots of animals and lots of leftover vegetable products and a bio digester set up with the filtration system like what you explained here is exactly what’s needed. Ultimately we would like to do the same thing is maybe filter the Biogas a second time through the three step process so that it can be compressed into cylinders and used to power a Biogas generator. That is really what we would like to do and would like to get to this point because we’re trying to build a offgrade community that will use Biogas for the generator and solar panels with a battery back up system where we can implement this kind of generator when the battery level drops below 50%. I am very interested in learning more on a larger scale but we want to make sure we do it correctly and would love to communicate sometime for a sharper outcome that can be used for off grid living. As far as the toilets we will be using incinerator toilets and the gray water will be put through a gray water filtration system before going into the Drain system. We have given this much thought I just thought I’d share a little bit with you as well. Thank you so much will always be watching
Thanks Patrick. Sounds like you have a really given it some thought. Your system sound like the perfect system! Keep me updated when you get it running. Always interesting to hear about others experiences with biogas and off-grid tech
Yeah same here on all points what I have to worry about now is he saying it's not efficient to run in the winter I will make that comment to him as well
As your toilet waste also produces biogas and contains the bacteria needed for the digestion process; why incinerate it rather than putting it into the digester?
You can increase the efficiency of the CO2 removal stage by using aquarium air stones. They make the bubbles really small thus increasing the surface area of the gas/water interface. Not sure if you have enough pressure though. Secondly, a glass enclosure (greenhouse) around the biogas digester would warm it up quite a bit, especially if you paint the digester housing black. Use the Sun.
Hi Thomas, Thanks for the suggestions. Check out my most recent video on scrubbers...I did extactly as you suggest...great minds! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-4HXgKTqT-l8.html I didn't go for a greenhouse, I went for the other option which was a lot of insulation: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-TJUqjQbnon4.html
I am very impressed by your work on modifying the biogas system to a cold climate. For a while, I was thinking about a single solution to purify both CO2 and H2S through a sustainable method. How about using NaOH or KOH solution to bubble through first? H2S becomes Na2S/K2S+H2O and CO2 becomes Na2CO3/K2CO3+ H2O. Then we can add a water container to bubble through to remove alkalinity in the gas in case. You can make the system locally sustainable if you use KOH solution made from wood-ash.
Interesting idea. I like the fact it could be homemade, using the wood ash. It doesn't reduce the number of scrubbers though, as if you use water to remove the alkalinity you would have to then remove any excess moisture using some dehydration: cat litter, charcoal etc.
@@GetMeOffGrid_ thanks for the reply. In fact KOH absorbs almost all the CO2 compared to just bubbling through water. So you will get less volume of gas which has high methane content. This helps reduce the storage space. You will get good clean burning.
Thanks for this. Really clever using cat litter. Hadn‘t thought of that. For heating, would maybe encasing your digester in compost be a reasonable heat source for avoiding decommissioning in winter?It would require a high heat compost with enough nitrogen and cellulose, but seems like a good off-grid thing worth experimenting with.
I believe you should be using Iron oxide as the scrubber agent for Hydrogen sulfide rather than the Iron metal found in steel wool. You can burn the wool to react the metal with air and form the oxide.
A byproduct you will have from the steel wool will be moss killer, it'd be better to put the dryer after that if you can find a use for it. However do check if your country still allows the use of it, the law in Denmark for example stands that you can use it but can no longer buy it.
Thanks for this informative tutorial, I would like to know more about second jar, what did you use . I see white powder, it's of which material or component?
Did you find the water siphoning back into the digester when ever its temperature droped? The fix would be another empty jar before the water jar. Digester into top of the empty jar and water jar fed from bottom of empty jar.
Great video, you mentioned decommissioning the biodigester for winter because it was too expensive to heat. Why don't you heat it with a biogas heater?
With the new insulated housing, it is actually not at all expensive. Check it out here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-TJUqjQbnon4.html
I am into hydroponic farming, and want to use the CO2 in a controlled enclosed environment during the day. How can I extract CO2 gas from the water? (2) It appears like low temperatures slow down the production of methane gas. What is the optimal temperature level to maximize gas production?
Hi. As I sure you know, as you are a hydroponic farmer, CO2 dissolves in water to for carbonic acid. It is quite difficult to get carbon dioxide back out of the water. You could boil it? But its quite energy intensive. Optimal temperatures are 35-40 degrees C.
It really depends on the amount of gas you are producing. If you check out my other scrubbers video, you will see I changed the design a bit to help with the monitoring of the materials. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-4HXgKTqT-l8.html
Sir, well don it's very good useful explanation about your project I wish you very mush success in it. Greetings from Johan D. BELGIUM Technical Engineer
That's very helpful as video. I'm learning English and I don't get yet a sharper listening. I'd like to see the orthography of the second bottle content that you have use instead of silica gel.
@@GetMeOffGrid_ I got it, It was cat litter that I was looking for. As you said in the video, cat litter is cheaper and more available than silica gel, isn't it?
Should have wrapped the barrel with 1/2 Inch pex pipe get a small gas hot water tank look for a old camper hot water heater that holds 6 gallons of water convert it to run on methane and you can keep the digester going all winter as long as you insulate the tank well
This is interisting Idea, I want to create something like this in Philippines where I lived. Because it has a warm climate. And also I want to ask how to use biogas to generator, what generator is possible for biogas to turn into electricity.
Hi sir good day. I want to know more about biogas system and Anaerobic. I want to contruct one in our house for cooking. Can I have your guidance sir please.
Hi Tom! Can you show me the process of how to do that things? I know the process but I don't how to do it step by step. Where should I put the hose at the end? What is that storage tank? Sorry for a lot questions. I hope you will help me.
I have added chapters to the video description so hopefully you will be able to navigate to important bits of the video more easily. For more information about the biogas digester setup step-by-step check out this video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Z9MTCFWTpyo.html
Hi. I'm also trying to produce methane gas from waste, but I'm going at it from another approach: rather than scrubbing the gas (which contains hydrogen sulfide, produced by purple bacteria), why not get rid of all of the purple bacteria and leave the whole waste solely for the acetogens that will produce the acetate that will be consumed by the methanogens? I had an interesting result by doing something unusually simple: I've collected dog droppings on a 15 kilograms bucket with lid and, in order to disinfect the collected matter (so it can be used by food solely by the relevant microbes), I've just added one cup full of table salt (sodium chloride) to the bucket. This amount of salt, which leads to a saltiness more than the double of seawater, forces the worms from the bottom into the top (which can then be scrapped off the mixture) and also kills whatever fungi that was growing on top of it. It's just a brutal amount of salt. After scrapping off the liquid that has accumulated on the top of the bucket, I'm left with an emulsion with the same consistency of ice cream. To my surprise, *the final cream does not emit the characteristic foul odors usually associated with fecal matter* which leads me to think that, without the living purple bacteria, there is no hydrogen sulfide produced. However, archaea (the actual methanogens) are hardy (their cell membrane uses ether links which are chemically resistant to hydrolysis) and many of them still survive this salt shock (the bucket is still bubbling, and methane does not smell). Now, the sulfur in this emulsion can be used as food to the archaea and maybe another microbe that will produce the acetate to feed the archaea. Salt might be the simple answer to isolate the right microbes from the unwanted ones.
You have to be careful with dog poo. There are other bacteria that can be transfered from dog to food plant, to human. I am not sure if the salt would kill them.
Hello this video is amazing but i couldn't hear properly what material did you use for removing water vapour and sulfide, i have been using biogas since 2007 but couldn't start generator for power generation but now i can fix it by using your method to purify it thanks man
How do you replennish the CO2 reaction in water? Maximum von entrationbwill be reached and then? Baking Soda? Calcium containing chalk-Rock? Regular change of water?thanks
Thanks! Hopefully I'll be able to get to that stage this year. I've got a video coming out soon with a upgraded 200lt digester. Once I have that running I'll be able to get to the compression stage! Cheers
brother, is making bio gas is risky or not? do we need to change water and other things time to time? how to depose the water etc? what is in the white form? where i can get it? please, help me.
HI Pranjal. There is a risk to making biogas, but it is only usually dangerous when the gas is pressurized. Yes you will need to change the water from time to time but that will depend on how much gas you are producing. If you are making lots of gas you will need to change more often. The white material is cat litter, you can also use silica gel beads. Something to remove the moisture from the gas.
@@GetMeOffGrid_ thank you, your work is really great and simple to understand, simple to do.😃😃 But, i thinking to make a biogas in a 1000 litre water tank. Is it a good idea and store the gas in a big tube? Is this a good idea.?
Might be better to put the steel wool after the water and the dessication medium (cat litter) last. Two reasons. -The hydrogen sulphide reacts with iron oxide, water is needed to rust the steel wool to make the iron oxide available. - reaction of iron oxide and hydrogen sulphide produces iron sulphide and water, but your dessication medium is before the steel wool, so there is nothing to remove this water.
Hi, happy to see your video that actually searching for. but is the entire project is still working? as what is the time you can use the methane after purifying by this method. What is your digester tank capacity?. Is CO2 can be removed by simply passing through the water without any pressure? hope that you will answer me. I was using this biogas 1Mcube capacity from 2010 onwards by putting kitchen waste only( 3-5kg) If this is working will need to upgrade my biogas .. Thanking you
Hi Navin. The CO2 can be removed by passing through just the water, yes. I would expect any biogas system to be pressurised from the tank towards the storage. It does not need to be pressurised more than that to use these scrubbers. The system will work continuously, you will need to change the water at some point as the water would get saturated with CO2 (that will become Carbonic acid). You will need to change the drying agent (silica or cat litter) when it gets saturated with water. You will also need to change the steel wool once that has all reacted with the H2S. You will be able to tell when the steel wool needs changing because it will be oxidised (turn brown). How long will this take? With a small digester like you have, it will be once at year or something like that.
Thank you. I chose to do CO2 first as next is the remove the water. This means that the water does not oxidise the steel wool. If you did H2S first the gas will have some water vapour in it from the digester. Does that help.
Hi Tom, we are glad to witness the technical information also from the videos you are presenting. Here, I have small query that how would you scale up the digesters for about say 10-20 kgs of food waste and water should be the waste to water ratio to be added in the inlet .
Hi Sindhuja. I am glad you like the video. I am not sure what you mean about the waste to water ratio? If you are talking about how much water to add to the food you are putting in I am not sure there is a rule. I like to add around the same amount of water as food waste but volume. But it will vary depending on the food. Let me know if you need me to explain something any more. Cheers
@@GetMeOffGrid_ Thanks to you! Yeah what I meant was about how much water need to be added. Yes I got my answer here. Can you please provide me your mail id so that I can discuss with few more queries. Thanks in advance.
One resource that came up with a scientific number is Dickinson College Farm. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-YvQAg838xGs.html In there experiments they found that 5-10% solids to water ratio was the ideal to maintain PH balance and optimal gas production. Now that number is a bit tough to come up with because a lot of common kitchen waste already has water in it. So again the scientific way is to take a sample of your scraps, slowly dehydrate it at 105celsius for 24 hours and compare pre cook weight to post cook weight to get your solids content percentage. Example, if you take 500 grams for kitchen scraps, bake them as above and end up with 200 grams of scrap material, you have 40% solids. So then you can calculate how much water to scrap ratio. In this example you would need to add 1700 grams of water. 200 grams solids divided by 1700 added water plus original 300 water in the scraps equals 200/2000=.1 or 10% solids. You can find the college on RU-vid as well. Hope this helps and is totally not super necessary. You can swing it one way or the other by quite a bit and it will still work. We are just talking about going for max production.
The steel wool will look like it has rusted. So when that gets to over half I'd suggest it needs to be changed. Cat litter needs to be changed when it can no longer absorb moisture. Check out this video, for a set of scrubbers that are easier to check these things: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-4HXgKTqT-l8.html
Nice! Where in the world are you doing that? This might be of interest to you...my latest scrubber upgrade: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-4HXgKTqT-l8.html
I have collected tiny iron particles from creeks when panning for gold - I used a magnet to separate them from the other fine particles in the pan - maybe a jar of this?
thanks for your videos mate, there arent many of them in the uk, (probably because of the cold weather) couple of things ive seen are using a 12 heating element on a simple solar setup to heat the digester possibly, and ive seen some rigged up to a toilet in the us, question is, does human waste produce methane gas, as im not sure it does ? and lastly are you producing gas yet as its june and pretty warm, and looking forward to more of your videos but you need to up the volume a bit as sometimes you cant hear very well cheers mate (from glasgow in scotland)
Hi Stephen. Thanks for watching. Yes the cold weather definitely is a barrier. The solar system is a definite option, problem is the cold is the main issue and its when the sun doesn't shine too much. Once I am happy with my digester I am hoping to play around with effectiveness of different things like that. On human waste, yes it does produce methane but from what I have read not as much. Also all the chemicals people use in their toilets does a good job at keep the good bacteria at low / non-existent levels. My digester isn't producing yet, I need to drain it, seed it and move it to a better spot but have been focusing on my other project recently. Once I have that all done it will be full steam ahead to get it up and running and producing gas so I can have a play with those other things. Cheers for the feedback on the volume, I'll try and get better, my gopro isn't an ideal camera for this unfortunately. Cheers Tom
One guy who replied said that he was going to put his in a small greenhouse, along with wood chip compost to keep it warm. (Your greenhouse needs a vent at the top to let out any gas that may escape)
When the water becomes more acidic, around pH5 will probably be good. Any lower and it will be too acidic. The cat litter can be disposed of in normal trash. If you have compostable cat litter then you can put it in the compost. The acidic can be neutralized with lime or chalk
Hi, Tom. I am from India. it's great to see ur work. what will you suggest as the best inoculum for solid-state anaerobic digestion, and how much volume should it be, for example for 1 L reactor, how much should be the volume of inoculum. thank you. i hope your reply.
Hi Mothe. Thanks very much. I am not sure what you mean by "solid state"? Like the digester I have built or something different? If it like my digester then I'd advise 50%, might not be necessary to have that much but it will work well with that much
Please explain why you're not able to run this in the winter how cold is it where you're at in a winter that would be a problem if you wouldn't be able to use this year round
The digester needs to be at least 35 degrees C to work well. So in the winter, depending on your insulation and air temp it could be a lot of energy to keep that temp. Not a problem if you shut it down, might have to reboot with some cow manure in the spring.
Hello I like your videos but I may have some questions like how much time it need to produce gas and I was facing problems with scrubbing it from these toxic gases hope you would answer and thank you any way
How long is a piece of string. It will all depend on how much volume of moist gas is moving through your system. I haven't got a good idea of any relationship between feed in a time on the filter change yet.
What do you do with the water when it gets to acidic ? Are there any uses of acidic water? Could you abstract CO2 to carbonize your drinks? Abstract sulfur to a usable form? Thank you in advance
I guess you could do something like that. The issue is the other impurities, I am not a chemist, so being sure that you extracted only the molecule you wanted is not something I feel comfortable advising on. I simply add it to a alkaline substrate, wood ash to try and minimise any negative effects of the acid on the environment.
Yes! I think that would be possible, especially for a small digester like this one. I am not sure how it would work practically but I'm sure you could.
Hi Sandeep. Do you mean the second scrubber? With the white material in? This is cat litter, a super-absorbent material used for cats to wee and poo in.
Hi Tom, I am from India and really appreciate your work. the method you showed seems to be v simple to make and very cheap too. Pls also tell this that, from where we can get Cat litter...I mean what is the commercial name for it? Actually I am not the pet lover so didn't heard this name before.. Thanks Paavan
I think you could justifiably do it either way around. I chose to do it last so there is less chance of the wool being corroded by moisture and rusting.
The quick answer is yes. A few options, either increasing the pH to above 85 or by adding soda ash. I've never done it though so can't say how easy or effective either would be.
@@GetMeOffGrid_ can i use rice grains instead of cat citter its a doubt ???is it possible bcoz have seen people dip their mobiles in a pot of rice to absorb the water if it gets wet
The plan will be to use it as a base for a hydroponics system and/or simple liquid fertiliser for vegetables. From what I know it doesn't need to be treated any more than watering down.
@@GetMeOffGrid_ I planning to do biogas in big level I definitely take video and dedicate that video for you if iam successful, you are my inspiration.
You could measure the pressure. That would give you an indication of how much gas is being produced. Would depend on your set up though. Or even gas flow through the pipes to the bag
