Micro jeans Pain biogas production project

[biros09]

Hello,

I am interested in Biogas, methane.

I would like to do a laboratory experiment to produce some of them from ferns on a few liters (10 g of dry matter for about 5 liters of gas), to familiarize myself with the process.

After that, I would have more experience with digesters of a few hundred liters.

Who can give me the procedure:?

equipment, heating, agitation, do you have to "seed" the plant matter with specific bacteria.
fermentation time .....

thanks for all the answers.

Paul
biros@free.fr

[claude07]

very interesting project.
but why the ferns? do they have a putresible power to produce more gas than other plants?
when you make compost for it to take, we add a trigger as simply nettle. otherwise there are bacteria for septic tanks or the like, must see if they produce methane.
if you do this in the lab, ben does tests!

[aidiv]

Here is a site to try to make methane, with a bottle of water (dispenser model) a helium balloon a benzen beak and some pipes

found on:
http://www.re-energy.ca/

direct links of the page where are the exwplication (in English)
http://www.re-energy.ca/t_biomassenergy.shtml

the plan file in pdf to build its digester.
http://www.re-energy.ca/pdf/cp3.pdf

here is the picture of the result:

[biros09]

but why the ferns? do they have a putresible power to produce more gas than other plants?

because ferns are very abundant in my area.

here is my page on this project:
http://biros.free.fr/orvert/

Paul

[A2E]

go see this: www.onpeutlefaire.com/fichestechniques/ ... ailles.php
you should find what you are looking for (unless you already know!)

Brush compost
By the method of Jean Pain

Principle of use

Each year, millions of tonnes of scrub, by-products of forests ... are available for agriculture.

The ease of their harvest, their ability to make compost, make it a very cheap raw material of incomparable richness, suitable for the most diverse cultures.

The methodical clearing of the forest presents the very great advantage in the Mediterranean regions, to make practically disappear any risk of fire.

Of course, the clearing must be judicious, that is to say, maintain very provided places, dense in foliage and coppice, so as to preserve nestings, shelters and natural refuges for the wild animals.

Currently brushing is expensive. By the practice of composting brush, we can consider putting the forests of the Mediterranean basin away from fire, not only without purse loose, but still benefiting from excellent organic manure.

The use of brush compost also allows, in the context of reforestation, a recovery and an accelerated growth of forest tree plantations.

Equipment similar to that designed for the grinding and composting of urban waste can be used.

Harvesting brush

The key is the variety, which ensures balance within the compost. A restriction: the diameter of the largest branches should not exceed 8 mm in the case of manual composting. Thus the chlorophyllian sampling will not be destructive for the plant but limited to the branches most easily decomposable. It's about making the green screen less bushy, not destroying it. The protection of the environment is thus ensured.
The scrub is stored in a composting area that should be as large as possible, an excellent location being the edge of a forest

Impregnation of plant matter

If we have very little water, we must take advantage of the rain for the essential operation of impregnation of the plant material.

It will proceed by repeated brewing followed by a fast pile-up. Can also extend on the ground tarpaulins with raised edges to collect rainwater. We will then proceed to watering the stored pile, either with the normal watering can, or by short and repeated sprinkling.
The best method is immersion in barrel, tank, basin or any other non-metallic container.

As the brush is brought to the composting area, it is packed in the empty barrel by compressing it very heavily by crushing. It will be kept compressed by a heavy stone, then fill with water to the brim.
We will leave, half a day or a night, the matter to impregnate to heart. Then, at the fork, it will be taken out of her bath, and, well drained, it will be put in piles.

The process will be repeated as many times as necessary to obtain a volume of four cubic meters of moistened brush, well packed, adding the equivalent of the absorbed water. This is, in fact, the minimum volume that allows proper fermentation.

There is of course no maximum, except the possibilities of the performer. However, it is preferable to make several successive piles of 4 m3 rather than a much larger one, for the sake of convenience.

It takes three days of work for an active man to accumulate and impregnate this volume of brush, which will give two tons of compost ready for use.

This is the starting point for successive transformations leading to 111 days later obtaining a compost of brush with optimal qualities, provided however that all the following operations are carried out with precaution, delicacy and precision.

composting

Three weeks after the last day of the impregnation, the pile dropped and softened.

It is then necessary to compost. Using the fork upside down (teeth against the ground) we will proceed to a kind of carding by striking vigorously with repeated blows on the edge: the material will be tapered, put in lint, then we will throw it on the side, or behind itself. An hour and a half of continuous toil is enough to card the whole pile. We then notice that the matter has changed in appearance: it has become brownish, a pungent odor emerges. A slight temperature indicates a beginning of fermentation.
Then we will proceed to the stocking process, which is the most precise of the composting operations. The following measures will be scrupulously respected: width at the base 2m20, height at the center 1m60, triangular shape. Length determined by the amount of material to be composted. We will pile very delicious treats, without packing. If we take care to throw the matter always in the median axis, we will notice that the pile, while rising, takes the desired form. Duration: half an hour.

Always without tamping, a shovel of 2 cm thick, made of earth, sand, potting soil or old compost, will be spread by shovel. A quarter of an hour for this operation.

Here we are at the terminal point. Large branches placed in a hut roof will ensure the protection of the whole against rain, snow, wind and sun. Duration for this last hand, given the time required for the search for big branches in the forest: one hour. In the following days, a strong fermentation will be triggered, sometimes culminating at 75 °.

Compost of 90 days

After three months the compost of 90 days is obtained, ready for surface use.
This compost should be kept as little as possible in the light of day, and covered with branches or mats if you have to leave work or suspend work for several hours.

The organic nutritive material constituted by the compost of scrub of 90 days is administered only once a year on the surface, in a thickness of 7 centimeters, at the beginning of summer cultivation, that of winter being the first, at the head of rotation.

The 90 day compost should not be buried, because it is still in a "rude" state, which would make it a foreign body rather than a food. The bacterial attack it has suffered makes it suitable only for surface use.
Indeed, such a material would solicit most of its energy from the soil in order to "digest" it, "absorb" it, decompose it, to the detriment of plants that one would like to see grow and flourish. Worse still, the "digestion" of the compost not being done in the soil in the same way as on the surface, one could expect a depressive state of the soil the following year and even, in some cases, two years more late, the woody material constituting the brush compost claiming that time to be sufficiently decomposed and then become, but only then, rewarding for the earth.

Of course we can, instead of using it immediately keep and let the compost of 90 days.

COVER

The role of the cover is to prevent the evaporation of the water from the soil and the compost and to cause, at the hottest time of the day, an appreciable condensation at the top level of the compost, and under it an intense life in darkness.

It goes without saying that leaves, straw, hay or green grass not seeds, ferns, rushes or grasses swamp will cause the same phenomenon. Better, while the cover made of pine needles will necessarily be removed for the next winter crop, the cover obtained by the aforementioned plants can be incorporated in the soil at the end of the season by a very light hoeing. As for pine needles, they will be sent to composting and will not be incorporated into the soil as is.

Whatever plant is chosen to fulfill the cover function for the purpose of protecting soil and compost against evaporation, it will be important to verify, at placement, the perfect uniformity of the thickness, and to ensure that 'no hole or poorly preserved space remains, especially around the feet and stems of seedlings.

In fact, a protective cover that is poorly or imperfectly applied, leaving for example the paths and paths discovered in the thought that covering only the cultivated spaces themselves, would allow the soil and subsoil moisture to be covered. escape through open spaces.

Applications

Here is an example of the use of 90 days compost in Haut Var:
In November, the first freezes, the soil is rid of the previous culture (watermelons). The last fruits and leaves are removed, a light hoe (5 cm) buries what remains of the compost and the cover of the summer crop.
Immediately the winter lettuce is sown.
In spring, it is a crop of small peas that succeeds lettuce.
Between 5 and 10 May, young eggplants are transplanted.
Late May: Brush compost, which is covered with pine needles to protect it from daylight.
Autumn and winter: the surface is occupied by carrots.
Spring: Spinach crop, followed by a tomato plantation.
Generally, the garden sees three crops in the year, except when it comes to vegetables whose winter or spring cultivation requires occupation of the field over two seasons.
The crops are protected during the summer by racks, watering is not necessary. For example, in the heart of the Provençal summer, by 38 ° in the shade, leeks are transplanted without watering, but after pralinage in a mixture of 3 kg of compost of brush, 3 kg of red clay and 3 liters of 'water. The roots were cut at 1cm, leaves at 10 cm. After that, the cover is removed, the leeks are quickly planted in the soil, through the compost, and the cover is put back in place. The leek worm does not show up.

Transformation into potting soil

If one does not immediately use the compost of 90 days, one will cover the pile carefully. A few months later we will be in the presence of a soil allowing fine seeding, horticultural and floral cultivation of rare and delicate species, provided, however, to return the pile one month before its use and rebuild it to the original measures.