Besides ethanol for fuel, I believe that methane gas is a great alternative energy source TODAY!  Unlike some technologies like solar panels, hydrogen, and fuel cells, that are out of the normal price range of homeowners, ethanol and methane gas are cheaper and easier to put to use at home.

Don’t get me wrong.  Solar has many ‘other’ uses, for heating air and water, that are ready now also, but for electricity, it’s still a little pricey.

I came across some information today that I wanted to pass on.   The Vermont Technical College is looking at building one.  There is a pdf download there too, that you might be interested in getting called, “Food Scrapes”.

Vermont food scraps, compost and power source | Vtdigger.org

The information for this map came from a project to help determine the feasibility of building a methane digester at Vermont Technical College.

Publish Date: 05/10/2010 3:59

http://vtdigger.org/2010/05/10/vermont-food-scraps-compost-and-power-source/

I have posted some information on Jean Pain and using wood chip composting for hot water and methane gas, before, and here is someone who is going to be doing it on his Urban Farm.  I’m looking forward to hearing his results.

Jean Pain Compost Methods – It Begins. « One Straw: Be The Change

My goal is to produce burnable methane, in my backyard, with no fancy gizmos. Growing Power built a methane digester and theirs cost $750000. I am shooting for about $250 and that is only if I do my heat exchanger idea. …

Publish Date: 05/11/2010 19:06

http://onestraw.wordpress.com/2010/05/11/jean-pain-compost-methods-it-begins/

Next, is encouraging news to me, in that here is another example of the changes in progress.  What I mean, is that every day I am seeing more and more people all over this country, learning about and doing more work with methane.  This story is about a conference held in Wisconsin, learning from farmers who are using methane digesters on their farms.  It also has a link to a government site that has a database of farms with methane digesters, plus other information on methane.  I’m excited to see it all happening.

Lessons learned from digester dairies – Blogspot

And while many of the conference’s attendees had their eyes focused on energy production, none of the farms said that was why they built and continue to operate a methane digester. “We did it for public acceptance (of our large farm) …

Publish Date: 04/27/2010 12:29

http://hdnotebook.blogspot.com/2010/04/lessons-learned-from-digester-dairies.html

This last one for today, is an interesting idea.  Taking an old shipping container, turning it into a self-contained methane digester.  I’m going to be looking into this further.

MuckBuster Anaerobic Digester Generates Energy From Poop – Ecofriend

Eco Factor: Anaerobic digester produces renewable energy from organic materials. SEaB Energy has announced a new anaerobic digester that is…

Publish Date: 04/20/2010 23:23

http://www.ecofriend.org/entry/muckbuster-anaerobic-digester-generates-energy-from-poop/

If you have news about methane digesters, please send them in.  Also, if you like this post be sure to share it with others, and leave your comments below.

Here is a Green Business News story from SW Colorado that is a great example of what is being done.

For 99 years, furnace tenders like “Outback” John Schertz have loaded coal into a giant boiler in the basement of the San Juan County courthouse.

Now Schertz is adding sunflower hulls into the flames.

Those hulls, pulverized and pressed into green pellets, represent a new twist in a southwestern Colorado attempt to turn sunflowers into fuel.

The pellets are made in Dove Creek at San Juan Bioenergy, which started in 2006 as a nonprofit cooperative to produce biodiesel from sunflower oil. The plant changed its business model and product focus as dropping oil prices and the loss of government subsidies for biodiesel made that fuel a less desirable commodity.

Today San Juan is a for-profit business creating uses for every scrap of the sunflower.

San Juan is extruding food-grade oil from the more than 10,000 acres of sunflowers and safflowers grown in that corner of the state.

Some of the sunflower hulls and other green waste from the plants power San Juan’s own gasification plant. The rest of the pellets are trucked to Silverton for the first large-scale use of sunflower hull pellets for heat in the state.

The plant also mixes sunflower hull pellets with aspen sawdust for home woodstoves.

“We started this up at the bottom of the recession, and we’ve adapted,” said Jeff Berman, chief executive of San Juan Bioenergy.

At between $500 and $600 for a seven-ton load, the pellets are cheaper than $150-a-ton coal, but when the cost of hauling the pellets to Silverton and its faster burn rate (8,000 BTUs per pound compared with 14,000 BTUs for coal) are figured in, pellets and coal are about equal in cost, San Juan County administrator Willy Tookey said.

“We felt if we could do it for the same or a lower cost, it wouldn’t hurt to be a little green,” Tookey said.

How green the pellets are remains to be seen. No analysis has been done of hulls’ carbon footprint, but Berman expects it would be less than coal’s.

Schertz, a former coal miner who has been tending Silverton furnaces for six years, said he is excited about the prospects for a heat source that is much easier on boilers, creates no dust and burns with an odor that reminds him of “a desert tumbleweed fire.”

He expects to add sunflower pellets to the furnaces in the Silverton town hall, old hospital and the Miners Tavern.

Schertz is giving pellet feedback to San Juan Bioenergy while Berman works on improving his gasification system that vaporizes sunflower waste and turns it into a power-generating gas. He said making biodiesel hasn’t been ruled out.

That could mean a cycle in which farmers such as Dan Warren, who grow the sunflowers, would be able to fill their diesel tanks and power their machinery with much cheaper fuel made from their crops, while the hulls would still be available to heat Silverton.

“It would be nice if we could burn it in our tractors. But whatever it takes to make this work, I’m all for it,” Warren said.

Nancy Lofholm: 970-256-1957 or nlofholm@denverpost.com

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It’s to bad that they aren’t making biofuel too.  Maybe they’ll start up again.  Plus, all the farmers need to do is make it themselves.  Work out a deal to maybe trade, sun flower seeds for processed biofuel.  Wouldn’t that be merely a trade of one commodity for another, and an ‘untaxable’ event?  I’m not a lawyer and not giving legal advise.  Just asking a question.

Food for thought!

David Blume’s Alcohol Fuel for
Sustainable Living Workshop

During this workshop, David Blume outlines how Americans can benefit from the production of clean, renewable alcohol fuel production and how local farmers  through these methods, can provide sustainable food and energy that will increase farm profits and financially revitalized local communites.

Seating is limited so sign up today:  David Blume Worshop Registration

David Blume is the author of, “Alcohol Can Be A Gas“.  Expert on ethanol alcohol for fuel.

This is a post that I had on my first site, altenergyradio.com, which I decided to change to this one.  I am now deleting that site.  I wanted to save/move this post.

Jean Pain is dead now, and has been for a few years.  He was a man ahead of his time, with lots of practical ideas.  Here is one of them.

I personally plan on doing this when I am relocated onto a farm.  If anyone of you has already tried this, or do try this, please pass along your thoughts and share it with us.

Jean Pain, a forest caretaker in south France, came up with a way to heat his water to 140F, get methane gas to use for his 5 bedroom house for cooking and generate electricity, and fuel his truck, PLUS fertilize his farm. Enough to last about 18 months. All this from a huge pile of woodchips. Watch these 2 videos to learn how!

Jean Pain – English – Part 1

Jean Pain – A french innovator who developed a compost based bio energy system that produced 100% of his energy needs. He heated water to 60 degrees celsius at a rate of 4 litres a minute which he used for washing and heating. He also distilled enough methane to run an electricity generator, cooking elements, and power his truck. This method of creating usable energy from composting materials has come to be known as Jean Pain Composting, or the Jean Pain Method.

Jean Pain – English – Part 2

Jean Pain – A french innovator who developed a compost based bio energy system that produced 100% of his energy needs. He heated water to 60 degrees celsius at a rate of 4 litres a minute which he used for washing and heating. He also distilled enough methane to run an electricity generator, cooking elements, and power his truck. This method of creating usable energy from composting materials has come to be known as Jean Pain Composting, or the Jean Pain Method.

I think this is a VERY practical home project, worth trying out. Personally, I will be, hopefully later this year. If I do, I will be sure to report all of the steps and the out come.

If anyone has duplicated this method, I would love to hear from you. Use the comment section below. Everyone is welcome to leave their comments too.

When I come across videos and information like this, I get excited!  Things are happening across this country.  Change is in the air.  Educational systems, people involved in local government are seeing the light about changing the way we live and conduct business.

The Sustainable Living Institute of Maui’s mission statement:

The Sustainable Living Institute of Maui is committed to optimizing Maui’s economy by helping people build skills that are compatible with the community’s cultural choices and economic aspirations; developing Maui as an exemplary and prosperous island that shares eco-effective methods with other communities throughout the world; and serving as a living laboratory and classroom for building and managing holistic communities.

If you know about other programs like this, be sure to let us know.  Help spread the word!