Technology & Process
What is biogas?
What is dry fermentation?
What happens during the fermentation process?
What are the advantages of dry fermentation versus wet fermentation?
What happens to the digested biomass after the methane is removed?
Does the digestate have to be treated further?
How much water does a BIOFerm™ plant use?
Will a BIOFerm™ plant decrease the air quality around it? Do they smell?
Input & Output
What is the substrate for a BIOFerm™ plant?
What kind of materials can be put into a BIOFerm™ plant?
I know how many tons of organic waste my factory, company or farm produces per year. How can I quickly find out the approximate energy I can produce with a BIOFerm™ plant?
What kind of substrate mixtures have been used successfully in a BIOFerm™ plant?
Can the BIOFerm™ process be used for composting human and animal waste?
Design & Construction
What does a BIOFerm™ plant look like?
How much space is necessary for a BIOFerm™ biogas plant?
What is the smallest BIOFerm™ plant?
What is the largest BIOFerm™ plant?
What percentage of its generated energy does a BIOFerm™ plant use? (parasitic energy)
How many operating plants does BIOFerm™ currently have?
Is BIOFerm™ present in any other countries?
Client Relations
What is the process for working with you to build a BIOFerm™ plant?
How is a BIOFerm™ plant built?
Who do I contact if I am interested in a BIOFerm™ plant?
How can I meet you if I don’t live near your current location?
Environment
How does BIOFerm™ contribute to lowering greenhouse gas emissions?
What is a greenhouse gas?
Can BIOFerm™ solve global warming?
What is global warming?
What is methane and why is it bad for the environment?
Why is methane a greenhouse gas?
Does the BIOFerm™ process compete with food production?
Get Involved
How can I get involved?
Do you currently have any open positions?
Technology & Process
What is biogas?
Biogas refers to the gas that is released during the anaerobic digestion or breakdown of organic matter in the absence of oxygen. Such organic matter is food and yard waste, manure, sewage and other materials. Biogas consists primarily of methane and carbon dioxide. It can be further cleaned to make bio natural gas.
What is dry fermentation?
Dry fermentation is the anaerobic digestion of organic materials without the addition of water that would otherwise be needed for traditional wet fermentation methods. The fermentation process releases biogas, which can be used as fuel in cars and to generate heat and electricity. Dry fermentation relies on the addition of solid waste that does not have to be shredded or liquefied. This makes it a process that consumes less energy and generates less waste water than wet fermentation.
What happens during the fermentation process?
Fermentation is a metabolic pathway for certain microbial organisms in anoxic environments. During fermentation, larger organic molecules, like sugars, are converted into a mixture of reduced end products (products that have gained electrons). The process occurs in two steps. First, energy (in the form of ATP molecules) is produced by the reactions of glycolysis, a process that breaks down sugars and converts them into pyruvate molecules. NAD+ molecules are used up in this step and are transformed into NADH. In the second step, NAD+ is recreated from NADH via oxidation and reduction reactions (which involve repositioning electrons). NADH molecules donate an electron to an acceptor. In many organisms, a typical substance that receives the electron is oxygen. Because oxygen is not used by these micro-organisms, other endogenous electron acceptors are utilized in this cycle. Pyruvate molecules (created during glycolysis) accept the electron and are subsequently converted into substances such as acids and alcohols through further molecular rearrangement. Specific fermentation reactions differ according to the micro-organism performing the process as well as the original substrates (sugars) being used. The result is the creation of varying end products. In the case of fermentation within anaerobic digestion, the production of a mixture of organic acids drives the decomposition process to create biogas.
What are the advantages of dry fermentation versus wet fermentation?
The advantages of dry fermentation are that it is much less energy-intensive than wet fermentation. It eliminates the need for movement of the input material and the addition of liquid. It reduces the volume of the input material by 40% and any generated waste water can generally be reused for the next batch. BIOFerm™ plants consume a very small amount of energy themselves, only about 5% of the energy they generate, which is a lot lower than the average consumption of a plant using wet fermentation.
What happens to the digested biomass after the methane is removed?
After about 21 days, most of the methane has been removed and the material is removed from the fermenting chamber. Some of this material is mixed into the new batch and the rest can be directly spread onto a field as fertilizer or it can be further composted to make commercial grade compost that can be bagged and sold at your local garden center.
Does the digestate have to be treated further?
The digestate can be used directly out of the biogas plant as a soil amendment. It can be further processed, through aerobic composting methods, to be turned into a material with a high level of nutrients and consistency. Additional materials such as sand or wood chips can be added so that it can be sold as compost.
How much water does a BIOFerm™ plant use?
Under ideal conditions, BIOFerm™ plants are engineered to be a closed loop cycle that requires only an inital input of liquid percolate. This percolate is then recycled and no more additional water is needed. However, particular situations, for instance when the input material is extremely dry or too wet, may cause there to be a lack or excess of liquid.
Will a BIOFerm™ plant decrease the air quality around it? Do they smell?
When the fermenter doors are closed, BIOFerm™ plants produce minimal smell. Open BIOFerm™ plants smell like a typical composting operation. Special efforts can be taken to further reduce smell by building a completely enclosed mixing area for the input material. The exhaust air from the fermentation chambers and the enclosed mixing platform can be discharged to the atmosphere via a biofilter to minimize odor.
Input & Output
What is the substrate for a BIOFerm™ plant?
As a general rule, BIOFerm™ plants utilize any type of organic waste that can be stacked into a pile. Examples of suitable materias include substrates like yard waste, agricultural waste, food process waste, source separated organics from municipal solid waste, and many others.
What kind of materials can be put into a BIOFerm™ plant?
Typically, organic material with a water content of less than approximately 75% can be put into a BIOFerm™ plant. These can be kitchen and restaurant food waste, yard waste such as grass clippings, weeds and leaves, agricultural waste such as corn husks and stalks, straw waste from biofuel production, unused feed silage, dry manure, food production waste and many more.
I know how many tons of organic waste my factory, company or farm produces per year. How can I quickly find out the approximate energy I can produce with a BIOFerm™ plant? – Use our Waste to Energy Calculator.
Can the BIOFerm™ process be used for composting human and animal waste?
BIOFerm™ plants successfully incorporate animal waste into the dry fermentation process.
Design & Construction
What does a BIOFerm™ plant look like?
A BIOFerm™ plant looks much like an agricultural building or a multiple garage building. See some plant images.
How much space is necessary for a BIOFerm™ biogas plant?
A typical 8 fermenter BIOFerm™ plant requires approximately 1 acre of space. This amount can be adjusted according to plant specifications, like the need for a silage bunker or extra percolate storage.
What is the smallest BIOFerm™ plant?
The smallest BIOFerm™ plant is in Prinzhöfte, Germany, with 2 fermenters and an installed capacity of 37 kW.
What is the largest BIOFerm™ plant?
The largest BIOFerm™ plant is located in Bennati, Italy. It has 11 fermenters and an installed capacity of 950 kW.
What percentage of its generated energy does a BIOFerm™ plant use? (parasitic energy)
BIOFerm™ plants only use about 5 % of the energy that they produce. This means that 95% of the energy that the plant produces can be used to power homes, businesses, factories and cars.
BIOFerm™ Statistics
How many operating plants does BIOFerm™ currently have?
We currently have 28 operating plants around the world.
Is BIOFerm™ present in any other countries?
BIOFerm™ currently has two headquarters, in the US and in Germany. We are currently expanding into markets in the rest of Europe, Asia and Africa.
Client Relations
What is the process for working with you to build a BIOFerm™ plant?
BIOFerm™ offers comprehensive concept development, business models and feasibility studies, waste stream analyses, planning and building, heat management and utilization concepts and financing options. We are able to guide you through every step of the process and even offer monitoring and maintenance options for your operational plant.
How is a BIOFerm™ plant built?
The construction of a BIOFerm™ plant is entirely overseen by BIOFerm™. BIOFerm™’s preferred construction companies are utilized unless the customer requires that their partner construction company is used.
Who do I contact if I am interested in a BIOFerm™ plant?
Please contact us at info@biofermenergy.com.
How can I meet you if I don’t live near your current location?
We travel to numerous trade shows and expositions every year. You can also get in touch with our regional BIOFerm™ representatives. Please contact us and we will put you in touch with someone in your area.
Environment
How does BIOFerm™ contribute to lowering greenhouse gas emissions?
BIOFerm™ helps to lower greenhouse gas emissions by providing our clients with the tools to lower the amount of methane released into the atmosphere by diverting organic materials from the land fill. It further contributes to the greening of the planet by off-setting the amount of fossil fuels that are burned to produce electricity by using clean burning biogas. And it can also offset the amount of CO2 that is being release from gasoline by using biogas in natural gas vehicles.
What is methane and why is it bad for the environment?
Methane is a chemical compound with the molecular formula CH4. It is the simplest alkane, and the principal component of natural gas. Methane is a very potent greenhouse gas (GHG). It has 21 times the potency of CO2. GHGs are gaseous constituents of the atmosphere, both natural and anthropogenic, and they absorb and emit radiation at specific wavelengths within the spectrum of thermal infrared radiation emitted by the Earth’s surface, the atmosphere itself, and by clouds. GHGs are essential to maintaining the temperature of the Earth; without them the planet would be so cold as to be uninhabitable. Too much of them, however, raises the average temperature of the earth, which leads to climate changes which in turn affect the species living on the earth. For example: if the average temperature of the earth rises enough to melt the arctic ice, polar bears will lose their habitat and become extinct.
What is global warming?
Global warming is the gradual warming of the earth’s atmosphere and surface caused by greenhouse gases. Global warming leads to changes in the climate that can have catastrophic effects on the earth’s animal and human population.
What is a greenhouse gas (GHG)?
A greenhouse gas absorbs and emits radiation at specific wavelengths within the spectrum of thermal infrared radiation emitted by the earth’s surface, the atmosphere itself, and by clouds. The build up of these gases in the atmosphere results in the trapping of heat from the sun that bounces off of the earth’s surface. Water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, CFC’s, nitrous oxide and ozone are the main GHGs.
Why is methane a greenhouse gas?
Methane is a greenhouse gas because it absorbs and emits radiation at specific wavelengths within the spectrum of thermal infrared radiation emitted by the Earth’s surface, the atmosphere itself, and by clouds. This absorption of radiation warms the planet’s lower atmosphere and surface.
Can BIOFerm™ solve global warming?
BIOFerm™ systems can contribute to reducing the release of greenhouse gases and help in reversing the effects of global warming. BIOFerm™ systems will play an important role in the move towards reversing global warming but won’t be the only solution. Conserving energy and generating electricity through solar, wind and other biofuels will also be part of the solution.
Does the BIOFerm™ process compete with food production?
The BIOFerm™ process does not compete with food production because it is designed to use only waste material. This waste material can come from food scraps, grass clippings, straw, switch grass, manure and human waste.
Get Involved
How can I get involved?
You can get involved by becoming an advocate for fighting global warming. Find out if your community separates food and green waste from its main waste stream and if they don’t already, push your city or town leaders to implement organic waste separation and ask them to set goals and timelines for that process. Setting official city or town agenda is always helpful. The next step would be to tell your city official about BIOFerm™ and encourage them to get in touch with us. In the meantime, you can start by separating out your organic waste and composting it in your backyard or with a worm compost inside your house. Encourage your neighbors to do the same. Even though composting still releases methane into the atmosphere, the amount is much smaller because more oxygen is present during the decomposition process than in a landfill.
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