Biomass ’09: Agricultural anaerobic digestion trends on the rise; more potential exists

Biomass Magazine | July 2009
By Lisa Gibson
Posted July 15, 2009, at 5:15 p.m. CST

National trends in anaerobic digestion of agricultural manure have increased between 2000 and 2007 from fewer than 50 million kilowatt hours per year to more than 200 million kilowatt hours per year, according to Dan Stepan, senior resource manager with the Energy & Environmental Resource Center in Grand Forks, N.D., and a presenter at the organization’s Biomass ‘09: Power, Fuels, and Chemicals Workshop Wednesday.

A key niche for the process is converting biomass materials to methane gas. In the U.S. this year, 98 anaerobic digesters are using dairy farm manure, 19 use hog manure, three use manure from caged layers, two from ducks and one each from boilers, beef and mixed manure, Stepan told the crowd.

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