How to make and use biogas

A brief outline of the first day of the workshop

---

---

---

1. Ecology, History, and activism
   • Anaerobic life is the most ancient form of life
   • The reality of climate change
   • Ignorance is poverty; poverty is ignorance
   • How Biogas relates to these problems, and provides some solutions
2. Overviews
   • Basically: all energy is solar energy
   • Biogas: keep it away from oxygen, keep it warm, keep it wet
   • Some videos about biogas
   • Four stages of digestion
   • The magic of WWABCSE

3. Parameters
   • TS, VS, FS
   • C/N
   • Temperature
   • Percentage of H₂O
   • Loading Rate and HRT
   • Agitation
   • Toxins
   • Pressure and Surface Area
   • pH
   • Gas production per digester volume
   • Questions
4. Substrates
   • Purified Substances
   • Manure Substrates
   • Plant Substrates
   • On Growing Substrates
   • Substrate analysis: practical techniques
5. Uses
   • Illumination
   • Cooking
   • Engines
   • Gas Requirements
6. Troubleshooting
   • Cultures
   • Startup: practical techniques
   • Scum
   • Sediment
7. Design
   • What’s on the DVD you got in this class?
   • Basic Digester Types
   • Design Process
8. Plans
   • Underground digesters (Indian and Chinese)
   • ARTI digesters
   • Plastic bag digesters
   • Hestia 'Home Biogas' digester (now failed)
   • Press plastic digester (superceded)
   • [The_Cube] and how it relates to what we've learned
9. VIII: Appendices
   • Appendix 1:Analysis
   • Appendix 2:Biohydrogen
   • Appendix 3:Agricultural Use of Effluent
   • Appendix 4:Math of Gas Production
   • Appendix 5:Specific Gravity
   • Appendix 6:Drill Statistics
   • Appendix 7:Burner Design
   • Appendix 8:Vital Statistics of Gases
   • Appendix 9:K and C Values
   • Appendix 10:Steam Temperature, Pressure, Water Depth
   • Appendix 11:Heat Transfer in Pipes
   • Appendix 12:Decimals and Fractions
   • Appendix 13:Geometry, Trig
   • Appendix 14:Metric Conversion
   • Appendix 15:A Simple Method  for Temperature Conversion
   • Appendix 16:Terms
   • Appendix 17:The Answers
   • Appendix 18:Bibliography
   • Appendix 19:Author’s Afterword
   • Appendix 20:Contents, Figures, and Tables 
   • Appendix 21:Index and Authors