$100,000 Grant Supports Work on Anaerobic Digester
Shulin Chen
Going from "rot to watt," or turning farm waste into
electricity, is the goal of a Washington State University project
that has received a $100,000 boost from the Washington Department
of Ecology.
WSU will use the money to finish building a portable anaerobic
digester that turns farm waste, manure and household garbage into
methane gas that can be burned to generate electricity.
The anaerobic digester is being developed by WSU's
biological-systems engineering department. It will be transported
around the state to demonstrate how the new technology can generate
power while helping to solve solid-waste disposal problems.
"This is an example of how Ecology is working with researchers and
the business community to develop alternatives to current
waste-handling practices," said Ecology's Mark Fuchs, who is
overseeing the contract with WSU. "We want to encourage using and
recovering energy from the huge amounts of biomass on
farmland."
Biomass is a combination of farm-field and processing residue from
harvested crops, animal waste and municipal organic waste. Eastern
Washington has an annual supply of 4.3 million tons of dry biomass
that is not being used, according to a report released in 2003 that
presented details of a survey of how much waste is available.
According to the report, that untapped biomass is capable of
producing 3.1 million megawatt hours of electrical energy, enough
to supply approximately 15 to 40 percent of Eastern Washington's
current residential electrical consumption each year.
Creating energy from biomass could reduce greenhouse-gas emissions,
benefit water quality and solve some solid-waste disposal problems,
according to the report.
The survey of the bio-energy potential of biomass in Eastern
Washington was sponsored by Ecology and the Inland Northwest
Technology Education Center and conducted by Shulin Chen, who heads
WSU's research team. According to Chen, the digester will be
located at WSU's dairy center during trials.
"We will operate the system at WSU to further test and refine our
ability to extract usable energy and products and to develop
operations and business models," Chen said. "After that, we will
work with Ecology to find the best places around the state to
demonstrate the project."
Under terms of the contract, the portable unit must be completed by
June 30.
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