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?
Are BIOFerm plants going to 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?
Are there any materials that work best with the percolate?
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 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 presented in any other countries?
Client Relations
What is your process of 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 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. 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 microorganism 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 drive the decomposition process to create biogas.
What are the advantages of dry fermentation versus wet fermentation?
The advantages of dry fermentation are that it has a 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 be 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 bath and the rest can be directly spread onto a field as fertilizer or it can further be 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 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 require only an inital input of liquid percolate. This percolate is then recycled and no more addiiotnal 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.
Are BIOFerm plants going to decrease the air quality around it? Do they smell?
When the fermenter doors are closed, BIOFer plants produce minimal smell. Open BIOFerm plants smell like a typical composting operation. Special efforts can be taken to further reduce smell by buidling a completely enclosed mixing area for the input material.
Input & Output
What is the substrate for a BIOFerm plant?
As a general rule, BIOFerm plants utilize any type of organic waste that can piled into a stack. This includes substrates like yard waste, agricultural waste, food process waste, seperated 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.
What kind of substrate mixtures have been used successfully in a BIOFerm plant?
Are there any materials that work best with the percolate?
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 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 Neuenmarkt, Germany. It has 8 fermenters and an installed capacity of 750 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, business, factories and cars.
BIOFerm Statistics
How many operating plants does BIOFerm currently have?
We currently have 27 operating plants in Germany. X number are under construction.
Is BIOFerm presented in any other countries?
BIOFerm currently has two head quarters in the US and in Germany. We are currently expanding into markets in the rest of Europe, Asia and Africa.
Client Relations
What is your process of working with you to built 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 will be 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. Preferred construction companies of BIOFerm are utilized unless the customer requires that their partner constructio company is used.
Who do I contact if I am interested in a BIOFerm plant?
Please contact us at info@bioferm-es.com.
How can I meet you if I don’t live near your current location?
We travel to numerous trade shows and exposition a year. For a calendar of shows that we are attending, click here LINK to Open Office online calendar. 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 green house gas emissions?
BIOFerm helps to lower green house gas emissions by providing our clients with the tool 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 with using clean burning biogas. And it also can 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 20 times the potency of CO2. GHGs are gaseous constituents of the atmosphere, both natural and anthropogenic, and 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 but too much of them 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 leading to the melting of 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 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 htese 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 green house 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 planets 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, even used 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 if they don’t already, push your city or town leaders to implement organic waste separation and have them 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 you 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.
Do you currently have any open positions?
Please see our Careers page.
