Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Composting: Garbage into Gold, and Energy

I have always had a healthy appreciation for the composting process.



My organic detritus world got a little juicier in October 2008 when I toured BEKON's dry fermentation plant outside of Munich, Germany. To put it very simply, they take organic matter, put it in a digester (an air-tight container), and let the biomass ferment. The resulting biogas generates electricity. After the fermentation process in the digestors, the digested matter undergoes further composting. Here are the pictures.

Compost... and energy. Good stuff. BEKON also claims that their system is a lot more efficient than anaerobic digestion because, besides the added percolate, it is a dry process.
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2 comments:

  1. Ms. Ali JessieNovember 10, 2008 at 12:58 AM

    Hi Meredith! Jina just gave me the link to your blog. (Maybe you told me the address before but I just checked it today for the first time!) I'm excited to follow your adventures! Two questions: can I put a link to your blog on my blog? (www.fukuokayou.blogspot.com) and can I share your blog with my geography students? I want to turn them on to trash! Hope you are well!

    -Ali

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  2. Meredith SorensenNovember 14, 2008 at 10:59 AM

    Ali -
    Yes to both questions. But of course!

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