Many entrepreneurial souls are already looking forward to come up with sustainable power sources using garbage for fuel and there is one such project that is currently gaining public support for a program that makes cash out of trash.
Heartland Biogas Project, a facility based in Colorado, is taking food waste from some of the highly populated communities and processing organic waste by using it to power electricity using a technology known as anaerobic digestion.
Anaerobic digestion is a process that biologically produces the flammable biogas- a combination of carbon dioxide and methane- with the use of organic wastes such as food waste, livestock manure, etc.
This process makes use of organic waste where a bacteria is introduced and stored in massive tanks to generate biogas, where there are a variety of segregated organic waste from different gigantic holding tanks with waste material from farm animal excrement, expired produce and organic waste material.
The holding tanks are able to hold 1.7 million gallons of waste matter will be processed to produce biogas.
Similar to the process undertaken by our bodies as we digest food that goes through a segregation process where a liquid in the form of a water-based sludge then captured in what looks like industrial ponds are solids that are later used for composting and a gas that is captured in air-tight tanks.
The gas is then channeled through a massive interstate pipeline to a power generating facility the uses the gas to power electric generators.
Not only does this process work to benefit from organic waste being disposed in landfills, it harnesses methane gas, which is a powerful greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change.
The use of biogas is more environment-friendly compared to using fossil fuels that have a high conversion percentage of carbon dioxide which is a powerful greenhouse gas that gets released into the atmosphere and is one of the leading causes of global warming.
Biogas – which consists of no less than 97% methane – when combusted as fuel, spends the methane gas and does not produce carbon dioxide, making it safer for the environment.
Many countries all over the world are now focusing on shifting from carbon-based fossil fuels to more sustainable and environment friendly means to generate power.
Image Credit: Luke Runyon/KUNC – Harvest Public Media
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