FS2BD Project Update
THE BIG DAY FINALLY ARRIVES!
Bob and Jeremy take their position on top of the water storage tower awaiting the flow of rumen and feces to begin.
THOSE FUNNY FERMENTATION GUYS!
Wilson knows that something big is about to happen – Johannes also anticipates the impending arrival of the good stuff.
HERE COMES THE SLUDGE
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Johannes helps guide the sludge truck as it backs down the road towards the plant. The fecal “sludge” averages 97% water so it’s more like “dirty water.” The grate is there to keep any trash from entering the digesters.
NO SPILLS PLEASE
The crew did a great job loading the sludge, no spills! There was a small amount of plastic (and one pair of underwear!) caught by the incoming screen.
THE ABATTOIR
This is where we got 3,000 liters of rumen – material taken from the cow’s rumen or first “stomach.” We will use the rumen to inoculate our digesters with methanogenic (methane producing) bacteria.
THE JUNGLE
Upton Sinclair helped us see the inside of the “meat packing” industry years ago. I suspect little has changed – it’s nasty which reaffirms some of the reasons to be a vegetarian.
RUMEN DELIVERY
Our Fermentation Team hired a truck to bring the 3,000 liters of rumen from the abattoir to our plant at Dompoase. It had to be hand loaded into the digester since it is too thick to pump. Four men with buckets worked for four hours.
RUMEN
Rumen looks like a “grass-bile smoothie”. It was loaded through the two four-inch sample ports on the 10,000 liter digester.
BUCKET BY BUCKET
Fortunately, we plan on loading rumen only this once. It was long, messy work. Justin brought out the two “stingers” made for pump mixing the digester to help push the rumen down the tubes when it backed up.
AND IT WAS HOT!
The bulk of the work was completed in the heat of the day. Justin, however, was still all smiles.
NOT TOO MESSY
Wilson and Bob cut some pieces of plastic sheeting to serve as “bibs” around the sample ports to minimize the mess made by the rumen loading. On the right are four sample of the fecal sludge that were taken to characterize the incoming stream.
SCIENCE – CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS
The Fermentation Team (Martin, Johannas and Justin) had assembled a gas sampling system on the gas outflow line a couple of weeks before the loading. This will allow the monitoring of gas production and its chemical makeup. On the right, the system that Bob came up with to “pump mix” the digesters which includes two “stingers” and a trash pump – it works!
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[Latest] * [Troutsfarm] * [Installing the Generator] * [November Garden] * [Traffic Accident] * [Wildlife at Dompoase] * [It’s All About the Sludge] * [Filling the Digesters]
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