Happy Coral Triangle Day! Biotech–HomeBiogas, What is Biodigestion? Listeners’ Call to Action!

BIOTECH NEWS–HOMEBIOGAS

If you’ve ever tried backyard composting and after a while noticed a smell, then you know about organic waste off-gassing. Or if you’ve ever driven by a landfill, or a heavily laden garbage truck and noticed a smell—same thing: Organic waste decaying, decomposing and off-gassing. For the record, that smell was probably hydrogen sulfide, definitely not CO2 or methane. They’re both odorless. But just because you can’t smell them, both are still present and polluting the atmosphere. What if you could channel that off-gassing into a personal, home fuel device?

That’s the theory behind HomeBiogas. HomeBiogas’s mission is to empower people and businesses to be change agents for the betterment of themselves by developing innovative, easy-to-use, practical, and accessible biogas systems. They launched their first product in 2016. 

It works through the process of biodigestion:  This is the process by which hungry bacteria break down organic waste, like food scraps and animal manure, producing biogas. According to the company, bacteria in the digester (and by digester, I would say it looks more like a two-person tent) turns the organic waste into biogas that is collected, filtered and stored in the safe and patented gas storage bag. 

You pour your food scraps in one end, as they decompose, they off-gas. By connecting the digester to its specially designed biogas stovetop, you’re now cooking with biogas! This is a good product for people living off-grid, like rural farmers, those in isolated communities in developing nations, or even victims of natural disasters who have been disconnected from energy grids.

Why does HomeBiogas matter to us? It’s an example of a circular economy at the individual or small business level—recycling food scraps into gaseous energy while removing fossil fuel from the cooking equation and GHGs from the atmosphere. The company touts having sold over 10,000 systems in 100 countries so far.

Bacteria in the digester don’t only make biogas, they also produce organic, liquid bio-fertilizer, which can be drizzled onto plants, crops, and even your lawn.

DEEPER DIVE: HomeBiogas, Biodigestion

HAPPY CORAL TRIANGLE DAY!

You were so excited to tell the good people about biogas, you plumb forgot about Coral Triangle Day!

Coral Triangle Day was established on June 9, to celebrate and raise awareness of the ocean conservation and protection, especially on the Coral Triangle, the world’s epicenter of marine biodiversity. Intended as an open-sourced event, the day is celebrated by individuals, organizations, and establishment concerned on the Coral Triangle. The Coral Triangle day was observed the first time on June 9, 2012, in conjunction with the World Oceans Day on June 8.[1]

Coral Triangle is a geographical term that refers to a vast ocean expense located along the equator and the confluence of the Western Pacific and Indian Oceans. The region covers the exclusive economic zones of six countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and East Timor (the “CT6” countries). It is considered as one of the three mega ecological complexes on Earth, together with the Congo Basin and the Amazon Rainforest.[2]

There is a broad scientific consensus that the region represents the global epicenter of marine life abundance and diversity—with 76% of all known coral species, 37% of all known coral reef fish species, 53% of the world’s coral reefs, the greatest extent of mangrove forests in the world, and spawning and juvenile growth areas for the world’s largest tuna fishery. 

Today, the coastal and marine ecosystems in the Coral Triangle are under significant and increasing threat by the warming, acidifying and rising seas.[4] Coral reefs have experienced mass bleaching, which threaten to degrade the important ecosystems. Over half the coral reefs are at high risk primarily from coastal development, overfishing, and unsustainable fishing practices.[3] Since the marine resources are a principal source of income for the population, the downstream effects of losing these critical coastal ecosystems are enormous.

DEEPER DIVE: Wikipedia

WHAT IS BIODIGESTION, ANYWAY?

Biodigestion or anaerobic digestion (AD) is a biological process that occurs when organic matter is decomposed by bacteria in the absence of oxygen (i.e., anaerobic). As the bacteria decompose the organic matter, biogas is released and captured.  Biogas consists of approximately 60% methane and 40% carbon dioxide. The remaining byproduct is called Digestate and is low in odor and rich in nutrients.

Biogas can be combusted to provide heat, electricity or both. Alternatively, biogas can be ‘upgraded’ to pure methane, often called biomethane, by removing other gases. This pure stream of biomethane can be used as a substitute for natural gas. Digestate is the left over material in the anaerobic digestion process. It contains valuable plant nutrients like nitrogen and potassium. Digestate can be used as a fertilizer and soil conditioner.

Anaerobic digestion systems are often referred to as “anaerobic digesters”, “biodigesters” or “biogas recovery systems.” AD has a defined process flow that consists of four distinct phases.

1.   Pre-Treatment: In pre-treatment, wastes may be processed, separated, or mixed to ensure that they will decompose in the digester.
2.   Digestion: During digestion, waste products are broken down by bacteria and biogas is produced and collected.
3.   Biogas Processing: Biogas produced is either combusted or upgraded and then used to displace fossil fuels. During upgrading, scrubbers, membranes or other means are used to remove impurities and carbon dioxide (CO2) from biogas.
4.   Reuse or disposal of solid digested waste: Digested waste has a high nutrient content and can be used as fertilizer so long as it is free of pathogens or toxins, or it can be composted to further enhance nutrient content5.

Too science nerdy??

DEEPER DIVE: BioGas Info, BioMass, YouTube

THE CLIMATE DAILY LISTENER CALL OUT CHALLENGE

Recently, one of our listeners shared her story of how listening to the climate daily helped her deal so well with her climate change overwhelm, that she got out and started working with the local community based group. Then she challenged us to ask you all to share any stories you might have of how listening to the climate daily might have inspired you into action, so we can share them with the world.

Remember, we’re all about sharing stories of people taking positive action to combat climate change. And that’s you listeners. You can hit us up on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter at #wetheclimate or Jeffrey at The Climate dot org or Maude at The Climate dot org, too.