Taking a giant green gamble on biogas (anaerobic digester tech)

[NickB79]

http://www.startribune.com/business/236784221.html

LE SUEUR, MINN. – One of Minnesota’s most ambitious green energy projects is flipping the “on” switch.

The odd-looking power plant, completed in November, is a collection of tanks and fabric bubbles resembling mini-Metrodomes.

Inside, bacteria in giant heated tanks are digesting corn silage and manure to produce methane, a flammable gas that’s fed into the engines that generate electricity. This city, famous for the Green Giant brand, is now home to one of the largest biogas power stations in the world.

“This is the newest and best technology available,” said LeRoy Koppendrayer, board chairman of the plant’s operating company, which is a unit of the Minnesota Municipal Power Agency (MMPA), a power producer for 12 cities including Le Sueur.

I like the idea of storing gas in what are essentially giant balloons for off-peak use.

[NoOneMan]

1. I surely hope people aren't growing grain for the sole intent of feeding these things for energy

[DavidDvorkin]

2. Silage uses the whole plant

not just the part humans eat, so even they are doing that (I also hope they're not), this process at least is less wasteful than food crops.