anaerobic digestion

[Wiz]

Hey, I was listening to public radio when I heard about companies getting rid of "food waste" using this process.

Anaerobic digestion is a series of biological processes in which microorganisms break down biodegradable material in the absence of oxygen. One of the end products is biogas, which is combusted to generate electricity and heat, or can be processed into renewable natural gas and transportation fuels.


I know the scale is too small for residential tanks but was curious if any large aquariums Use or have tried to use this process By collecting the gas from the bottom of a dsb. Does anybody know anything about this?

 

[Wiz]

How awesome would it be if we could both power and heat Our reefs by using the waste it produces!!

 

[AZDesertRat]

I work for a large national engineering firm and one of our big pushes now is generating energy from wastewater treatment plant sludge. Burning the bio gas to run generators for power is one way, another is called pyrolisis where you dry the sludge then burn it in the absence of oxygen to create energy with little byproducts. Places like Stanford Connecticut and Samford Florida are doing this large scale along with several others.
The cost to build a system at a large aquarium would probably be prohibitive due to the relatively small waste production and it would never break even in its lifespan.

 

[Wiz]

That's to bad. I figured catching the gas wouldn't be to hard. It would be how to burn it and convert it. But I'm certainly no chemist or engineer. Probably a lot more to it. lol I just thought it was funny because that's the basis of my dsb. Converting nitate to gas using anaerobic bacteria.. :-)