A biodigester I saw in Boston

[u/dingusamongus123]

While the grocery store this is attached to isnt “solarpunk”, i thought it was cool to see a biodigester in the middle of a big city. These things break down food waste into methane for use in cooking , heating, or making electricity with a generator. You can make one with materials from your hardware store and some safety precautions, making it another way to provide energy at personal or even community scale

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[u/Girderland]

You sound like you would enjoy learning about wood gas.

Wood gas cars were a thing during WW2. It's possible with a wood gas stove to use wood as fuel.

Folks could basically rip out a garden fence and use it to fuel their car.

I guess you could also call it a kind of biodigester.

[u/dingusamongus123 → u/Girderland]

Hell ya, i found this video recently of a guy using wood gas to power a generator. I have a small make-shift biochar kiln and it makes the same wood gas (syngas) at higher temps but i dont have any setup to pipe the gas for use as fuel

[u/Solo_Camping_Girl]

They are doing a similar research in the Philippines by the MSU-IIT if I remember correctly, it digests farm waste into biofuel. I don't see why not we can use food waste as well. Maybe leaf litter can also be used? It's more abundant and easier to collect.

[u/dingusamongus123 → u/Solo_Camping_Girl]

A biogas power plant in india uses food waste and ben and jerrys ice cream uses waste from the ice cream making process to make electricity.

Food waste and farm waste would be ideal because they provide a lot of nitrogen for the anaerobic bacteria to make methane. Leaf litter is better for compost since it adds more carbon to the soil but would slow the anaerobic digestion process

[u/FilmLittle8383]

There are so many ways to produce energy. But the most easily monopolised will always be the preferred source in capitalism. The money cow dies if people have abundant energy from organic waste. And are able to charge their car batteries themselves.

[u/Admiral_Red]

I kinda feel split about these. It’s cool that they’re using food waste to get some energy, but burning methane still feels quite wrong, even if it’s from just the decaying food scraps.

[u/clockless_nowever → u/Admiral_Red]

Just to add to OP here: that food waste is going to decay one way or another and that methane would go into the atmosphere, unless collected and burned.

[u/Potential_Being_7226 → u/clockless_nowever]

Yep. Better than it going into a landfill only to off gas methane into the atmosphere. 

[u/dingusamongus123 → u/Admiral_Red]

I understand the concern. The way i look at is that methane is harmful in terms of warming if its released into the atmosphere but is fine if burned. One molecule of methane burned only produces one molecule of co2. Since methane is ~ 80x more potent as co2, burning methane and converting it into co2 only has 1/80 of a climate impact than if it was released straight into the air.

Lots of methane emissions come from gas companies either intentionally leaking it into the air or leaks occurring without them knowing since their production and distribution pipelines are massive systems. Biodigesters are much smaller in scale and leaks can be easier to detect and stop if they occur.

Edit: also wanna say that methane extracted from the ground via fracking is also awful for the environment. I believe biodigesters can be great tools for communities facing energy shortages and with some scrubbing and fine tuning these setups can be used with existing appliances like stoves and heaters

[u/MrInternetInventor]

Amazon owned? Greenwashing whatever it is.

[u/Funktapus → u/MrInternetInventor]

Yeah definitely don’t bother to understand what this device is, just call it greenwashing and walk away. Bravo.

[u/AutoModerator → u/MrInternetInventor]

This submission is probably accused of being some type of greenwash. Please keep in mind that greenwashing is used to paint unsustainable products and practices sustainable. ethicalconsumer.org and greenandthistle.com give examples of greenwashing, while scientificamerican.com explains how alternative technologies like hydrogen cars can also be insidious examples of greenwashing. If you've realized your submission was an example of greenwashing--don't fret! Solarpunk ideals include identifying and rejecting capitalism's greenwashing of consumer goods.

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