Coupling dairy manure anaerobic digesters with commercial greenhouses
Channel: Livestock & Poultry Environ. Learning Community
Date: 2015-05-15

The full proceedings paper is at: www.extension.org/72775

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack declared a goal in 2011 of bringing one new manure-based anaerobic digestion (AD) system on-line per week; however, there are some real challenges that need to be overcome to make this goal a reality. To help achieve this goal, the economics of farm-based AD systems need to be improved. Making better use of AD surplus heat (mostly released to the ambient atmosphere), improving generator efficiency, and electricity use are real opportunity that needs to be flushed out. Greenhouses in the Northeast and similar climates are energy-intensive and therefore an excellent candidate to partner with AD systems to utilize their engine waste heat and electrical energy.