Our Plan!

Last week have a meeting with our town mayor. He wants the town to be more sustainable. The municipal council asks us if it is possible to use the town green waste to produce power. This is a way to reduce the ecologic impact of the town.  That is one of our plan and they know it, it's that why they ask us to set it up. Still now the green waste was burn as household wastes. The green waste was recycling to worm a swimming pool but the incinerator is at 50 km from the town. This method has a really bad carbon footprint so the council tries to change it.  The council offers us a financial help to realize our project. The town technical service will bring the green waste they produce. We ask them to handpick the waste because we want only organic waste. This is a necessity for a well working of the cell.

The cell will cost nearly 400 000€ it is a really heavy cost for the farm. But if we have access to incentives to help to set up a higher sustainable systems. The incentives from the EU and Belgium could reach 150 000€, the town can help for 50 000€. So the cost for the farm will be 200 000€. But we have save money with the aim of making our farm more sustainable.  The system will produce 9000 kW which could bring back 75 000€ per year. So in this way, if we add the maintenance cost, we have an 6 years pay back plan.

I have forgotten to present you how does it work. Our pigs are producing manure which can pollute the nature and in the same time represent a source of power. We are a little farm so we have no problems with the nature. But bigger pigs producers need to dispose of the amount of manure that their animals produce. The manure and the green waste from the town are put in a digester. There, the waste is eaten by bacterium and other microorganisms. The temperature, in the digester, grew to 38°C. The production of biogas start with the digestion of the organic material by the bacterium.  Then the biogas and the solid phase are bringing in a storage grave by pipes. In the storage grave the microorganisms continue to eat the waste which becomes a sort of mud. From the methanisation, it result mud and biogas. The mud can be use as fertilizer on crops. The biogas is pasted in a generator which produces in the same time electricity and warm. This type of generator is on of the most effective. 35% of the biogas becomes electricity, 50% become warm and the remains of gas are lost in the process.

To our mind this is a great system, because it will reduce our power dependence. It permit us to recycle our waste. We are a local actor of the sustainability!