“It will be good for the environment, for the complaining neighborhoods and to the farm owners themselves,” Dr. Julius Caesar Sicat, DOST Region III director, said here recently.
The neighborhood complaints are usually about the foul odor and the swarms of flies coming from unkempt hog and poultry farms.
Concerned citizens, on the other hand, point out that most of the waste from these farms find their way in rivers, streams and other bodies of water making them gravely polluted.
Sicat said there are now models of installed biogas digester in Nueva Ecija as well as in other places in Central Luzon in which the farm owners attest multiple benefits derived from its use.
“There is a model in a big poultry and hog farm in Sta. Cruz, Zambales that powers a generator set with 250 KVA (kilo-volt-ampere) output,” the DOST official said. “Other smaller (hog and poultry) farms have installed biogas digesters that generate methane gas for cooking and the sludge as fertilizer for their plants,” he added.
He said the setting up of small and big fixed dome type biogas is done with the help of DOST provincial director in Nueva Ecija Orlando Anselmo who designed the contraption.
In a separate interview here, Anselmo said a 1.5-meter diameter biogas digester which can generate .6 cubic meter of gas a day cost from P50,000 to P60,000 for materials and labor.Ideal for those raising up to ten hog fatteners or 300 chickens, the biogas generated from the digester is more than enough for the cooking needs of a family, he added.
Model
“We have a model in our office here which interested parties can see and appreciate. We are ready to provide technical assistance, even small loans, for the setting up of this type of biogas digester,” Anselmo said.
“Bigger digesters can be constructed using the model depending on the number of hogs, chicken, or eve n dairy animals being raised,” he added.
The model, he added, which is of concrete materials, is provided with a hydraulic tank that create pressure to push out the gas and the sludge.
A fairly big digester, he added, can produce gas that can power stoves, water pumps, and a small generator set for lighting, for some appliances, blow torch and infra- red light.
Another model of a different type of biogas digester was launched by the Central Luzon State University (CLSU) here recently.
This digester, described as spherical plastic fixed-dome type, 2.3 meters in diameter, rotationally molded seamlessly and may be installed below and above ground, can yield a harvest of biogas for household lighting, cooking and heating up to six hours per day.
This CLSU model is produced by a private company in partnership with the Philippine-Sino Center for Agricultural Technology (PhilSCAT) formerly jointly run by CLSU and the People’s Republic of China, and now solely operated by CLSU.
The unit, which consist of the plastic parts, accessories, shipping and installation, costs P195,000 for installation in the National Capital Region, and Regions 3 and 4a areas, according to officials of the private company.
History
History-wise, the use of biogas emanating from anaerobic digestion to heat bath water, was first recorded in Assyria in 900 B.C. The first installed biogas technology facility, though, was in a leper colony in India in 1859.In was introduced in the country in 1965 but it did not gain much popularity.
Millions of biogas digesters are installed currently in China, India and Nepal.
Authorities from the department of agriculture said that the population of livestock and poultry in the country as of January this year was 207.7 million. They generate billions in kilograms of manure per year, they added.
The gas emissions from this volume of animal manure is several notches higher than the emissions from transport facilities, sources said.
Sicat said that at a glance, the use of the technology looks to be an added cost for the hog and poultry farm owners. In the long run, however, the return on investment can be obtained in terms of their fuel and fertilizer yields, he added.
“And this technology also results in achieving intangible benefit – that of mitigating greenhouse gas emissions from livestock and other animal wastes." Sicat said.
