Biogas production is all in the mixing Green farms

Washington University in St. Louis
By Tony Fitzpatrick

April 15, 2008 -- Engineers at Washington University in St. Louis, using an impressive array of imaging and tracking technologies, have determined the importance of mixing in anaerobic digesters for bioenergy production and animal and farm waste treatment. Anaerobic digesters employ reactors that use bacteria to break down organic matter in the absence of oxygen.

They are studying ways to take "the smell of money," as farmers long have termed manure's odor, and produce biogas from it. The major end product of anaerobic digestion is methane, which can be used directly for energy, converted to methanol, or, when partially oxidized, to synthesized gas, a mix of hydrogen and carbon monoxide. Synthesized gas then can be converted to clean alternative fuels and chemicals.

Read the full story