Waste Management and Energy Opportunities EDITED

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Waste Management and Energy Opportunities(EDITED
)

• Steve Cox
• Anaerobe Systems
• 3/09/2007

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Anaerobe Systems

• Founded in 1975
• Microbiology supply company
• Primarily deal with anaerobic bacteria
• Make culture media for growing anaerobes
• Petri plates
• Test tubes
• Research

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Hydrogen Production

• Hydrogen can be produced through fermentation
• Bacteria use sugar for energy, but throw away the
  hydrogen
• Basic process1 C6H12O6 6 H2O -gt 12 H2
  6 CO2

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Control the Process

• Currently, wastewater is filtered and treated in
  ponds
• Transform the ponds into monitored and controlled
  environments
• Combine engineering with microbiology

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Organism Selection

• Millions of microbes that will break down organic
  matter
• Byproducts of one are food for another
• Choose an organism based on your food and what
  you want produced

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Production

• Strictly under anaerobic conditions
• Control pH, temperature, and nutrients
• Collect, process, and store gasses (CO2, H2,
  others)
• Process our own waste (yes, processing food waste
  gives us even more waste!)

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Our Process

• Determine the best microorganism to use based on
  the food waste
• Filter large solids from the waste stream
• Supplement the waste stream with essential
  nutrients

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Process, cont.

• Sterilize and inoculate
• Control and monitor fermentation
• Collect gasses
• Process waste

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What About Our Waste?

• Hydrogen
• Carbon Dioxide
• Organic Acids
• Dead Bacteria
• Unused nutrient

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Hydrogen

• Used on-site, not stored
• Consumed in a combustion engine, turbine, or fuel
  cell
• Electricity supplied to the the processing plant
• Waste heat used to sterilize initial waste stream
  or to heat fermentors

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Using the Hydrogen

• 1,300 gallon fermentor run continuously can yield
  about 5 kW of power per day
• Consumes about 7,000 gallons of feed stock per
  day
• Pepper Plant 100,000 gallons per day 70 kW
  of power per day

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Carbon Dioxide

• Can be used in refrigeration system to freeze
  peppers
• Can be separate, stored, and sold Dry Ice
  Compressed CO2

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Organic Acids

• Acetic acid is main waste product
• Distilled out from waste water
• Used to make plastic, as a food additive, and as
  vinegar
• Market price is 5/gallon (215 per barrel)
• U.S. Demand is 1.5 billion gallons

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Other Leftovers

• Distilled Water reused in the process or sold
• Solid Waste reused in the process as food
  source or tilled into fields