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A
large-scale anaerobic digester at the Scenic View Dairy in Fennville.
Photo courtesy of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

MSU
researcher Steven Safferman with an anaerobic digester of the sort his
team hopes to mate with power generators to produce power from animal
waste. Photo by G.L. Kohuth

Click on an image to view a larger or high-resolution version.

EAST
LANSING, Mich. — State and foundation grants exceeding $3 million will
assist Michigan State University researchers in developing technology
for smaller farms to turn animal waste into usable heat, electricity
and other valuable products.

MSU’s
planned Anaerobic Digestion Research and Education Center will
consolidate new and existing programs in a planned 3,280-square-foot
building south of campus, at MSU’s expanding farm animal and
environmental research complex.

Researchers aim to
develop and commercialize turn-key digester/microturbine modules for
affordable waste-to-power systems for small and mid-sized farms.

“The initiating of
the center completes our vision for a continuum of research
capabilities from theoretical calculations, laboratory-scale,
bench-scale, pilot-scale and farm-scale anaerobic digestion research,"
said Steven Safferman, the center’s director and an associate professor
in the Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering.

A two-year, $1.5 million Michigan
Public Service Commission research grant “recognizes MSU’s strong
capacity to address the critical issues of sustainability of animal
agriculture and the need for renewable energy and economic development
in Michigan,” department chairperson Ajit Srivastava said.

An additional
three-year grant totaling $1.5 million from a private southeastern
Michigan foundation to build the facility and fund new programs “is an
excellent example of how universities and foundations can work together
to address critical issues of society such as food, environment and
energy,” Srivastava added. The foundation prefers to remain anonymous.

Farm
waste management is a growing issue due to concerns over food
contamination, pollutant runoff, odor and, most recently, greenhouse
gas emissions. Petrochemical cost spikes, meanwhile, have added to
farmers’ costs for fertilizer and fuel. The MSU ADRE Center will
develop ways to efficiently convert manure liquid into methane for heat
and electricity while extracting fiber for soil enrichment or ethanol
manufacture and water for irrigation. Other valuable output could
include animal feed and algae, which can be processed into biofuels.

Anaerobic
digestion is not a new concept, and has been applied in recent years by
some large dairy farms to generate power. Development of scalable,
modular systems could allow smaller farms, those with fewer than 500
head of cattle, to convert waste into valuable resources. Despite the
loss of two-thirds of U.S. dairies since 1988, such smaller operations
still account for 53 percent of the 71,510 remaining and 48 percent of
U.S. milk production, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“The enhanced
revenues and reduced pollution from the proposed system will
significantly improve the quality of life and health of residents in
rural communities and turn an environmental and economic liability into
a public and private asset,” said project lead investigator Wei Liao,
an assistant professor of biosystems and agricultural engineering. “It
is our hope that success at this level will lead to extensive
applications of similar technology throughout Michigan and the nation.”

The ADRE Center
also is expected to conduct contract testing of related equipment and
processes to help support itself, and to house a recently created farm
energy auditing program that could conduct digester/power system
feasibility studies for dairy clients. It is slated for completion by
mid- to late 2009.

"Agricultural
operations are extensive energy users. Most can reduce their energy
use, sometimes even resulting in increased production, by adopting new
high-efficiency technologies,” said MSU professor Truman Surbrook, who
is managing director of the Michigan Agricultural Electric Council.
“Advances in this field are occurring at such a rapid pace that it is
hard for producers to keep up without the assistance of highly trained
personnel such as Michigan's certified farm energy auditors.”

The farm energy
audit program is supported by a two-year, $250,000 grant, also from the
private foundation. MSU will contribute another $230,000 toward the
cost of managing and operating the ADRE Center.

For more detail on the MSU ADRE facility, its funding and background on anaerobic digestion, click to www.egr.msu.edu/age/.
The Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering is affiliated
with the MSU College of Agriculture and Natural Resources and College
of Engineering.

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