Improving Energy Use Efficiency

Posted in: Energy, Pork Insight Articles by admin on April 1, 2009 | No Comments

Heating, lighting, and ventilation are the main uses of electricity in a barn. Through proper management and equipment pig performance and cost savings can both be achieved. An energy audit is useful for identifying areas that can be improved, and will provide energy management opportunities (EMOs). EMOs often involve changes to heating or motors. Energy conservation also commonly involves changes to improve fan efficiency and lighting choices.

Improving Energy Use Efficiency – Reducing and Refining the Use of Energy Inputs on Farm

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The main energy consumption in barns is through heating, lighting, ventilation, and on-farm feed mills. An energy audit can identify where energy is being used, and develop options to reduce consumption (and cost). The 9 steps to perform an audit are define boundaries, compile documentation, do a walk through audit, a preliminary analysis, develop energy management opportunities, a diagnostic audit, make recommendations, implement changes, and continue to monitor and target energy use. An energy audit can be self-conducted or contracted out, and can provide significant savings. An audit can provide a benchmark, but an actual energy benchmarking audit can be performed and allow comparisons between producers. Some of the common energy saving options are to change to more efficient light bulbs, to insulate and seal drafts, change to dual or energy efficient fans, install a water cooling system, changing the heating system, and properly setting controls.

Effective Ventilation

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Heat recovery systems and solar panels are two options to save energy and cost for heating. Producer experience in the nursery allowed the ventilation rate to be raised, obtained consistent and the proper inlet air speed when a duct was installed, and reduced the supplementary heat needed. In grow finish rooms, a heat exchanger allowed minimum ventilation to be run with no supplementary heat needed, and the best results were when an inlet duct was used and a portable heater used for the first few days. Heat recovery systems also allow gestation and breeding to have good air quality and temperature without additional heating. Individual stalls should have a duct system, but group housed sow systems can just use a diffuser. Solar walls in all rooms are beginning to be explored, and may provide heat that allows ventilation to be improved.

Effective Ventilation

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Ammonia from manure and moisture from swine respiration can combine to reduce air quality and increases odor when a room is not sufficiently ventilated. As pigs increase in size the moisture they contribute to the air will increase, so ventilation should be increased as well. Keeping the humidity below 70% and the ammonia below 20 ppm can result in heat loss during winter months, and the ventilation rate may not maintain air quality if it is based on temperature. An alternate heat source should be used in winter months to provide heat while the ventilation is used for air quality. Two of the most common problems with ventilation are not ventilating to control humidity and not using a heater. Heat exchangers or passive solar energy collectors are two options to provide heat while saving money.

Hog house tomatoes

Posted in: Energy by admin on January 1, 2009 | No Comments

The need to safely dispose of manure from concentrated animal feeding operations is resulting in some imaginative approaches. One North Carolina hog producer thinks one approach might be to attach a commercial greenhouse operation to the hog business, where a portion of the liquid manure is used to generate another cash crop – in this case, tomatoes. Why tomatoes? Barham chose tomatoes because he felt they would absorb a higher volume of treated wastewater than other vegetable crops. The farm installed a Caterpillar 3406 engine with a 120-kilowatt generator to
burn the biogas coming off the digester to generate electricity. The engine is capable of handling gas containing significant amounts of hydrogen sulfide, so nothing is done to clean the biogas before it is burned. For odor control, wastewater diverted to the farm’s greenhouses and hog barn manure pits undergoes a biological nitrification process.

Low temperature digestion

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Low temperature (psychrophilic) in storage digesters have been used for years in many temperate parts of the world – mainly developing countries – as a way to treat human and livestock waste and provide cooking fuel. They are cheap to construct – just throw an impermeable cover over an existing manure pond or storage tank – and can help control odors
and stop nitrification. King, a PhD student in the Department of Bioresource Engineering at McGill University in Quebec, is studying psychrophilic digestion at a commercial-scale swine operation located near St. Francois-Xavier, Quebec, in the Eastern townships by the Canada-U.S. border. The farm owner had decided to cover his existing manure storage tank as a way of controlling odor. A polymer membrane floating cover, designed by Geomembrane Technologies Inc. (GTI) of New Brunswick, was constructed on top of the 100-foot wide by 12-foot deep concrete storage tank. The tank’s sides were surrounded by soil and plastic pipes filled with concrete are used to keep the cover from lifting off the surface. King’s specific interest in the system involves the role played by microbial communities within the manure storage system and how quickly they can acclimate to different temperatures. She recently discussed her research during the First Annual Canadian Farm & Food Biogas Conference in Ontario, Canada. King hopes to continue her research and examine nitrogen conservation and land application of manure from an In Storage Psychrophilic Anaerobic Digestion (ISPAD) system, including wind tunnel tests to see what is released at application. She hopes to monitor two more swine production sites using covered manure tanks and optimize the ISPAD design.

Manure biogas developer ready for round two as green power trend grows

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Grant Meikle of Open Energy admits his first attempt at developing a manure- to- electricity project did not turn
out exactly as he planned, but he is not ready to throw in the towel on the technology. The technology to capture biogas from hog manure, imported to North America from Luxembourg by BioGem Power Systems, creates a pathogen-free dry compost as one by-product. It has been used as organic manure or dairy barn bedding. The Iron Creek Hutterite Colony was the first to apply the BioGem Power Systems anaerobic digester technology in North America, but low power rates and internal water supply issues made the project difficult to justify after three years in operation. These vessels are now used for manure storage. Also, BioGem Systems was wound down as a company, as lower energy prices and the slow pace of government support for green power made it hard to build a strong business case to move forward with the venture. However, Meikle and his Open Energy partners now feel re-energized given the current state of public interest  and a number of groundbreaking recent government initiatives that they believe are rekindling growth potential in such alternative energy projects as manure conversion to biogas.

Substituting energy crops with organic wastes and agro-industrial residues for biogas production

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The aim of this work was to evaluate the advantages of different substrates used in a full-scale biogas plant situated in a farm in northern Italy, by considering their potential biogas production and their prices in the market during the year 2007. For feeding the considered biogas plant, substitution of EC with some BR and OW was proposed as an example for other similar applications. It was found that a variety of residual biomasses, such as various BRs, AMs, and OWs, can substitute for ECs in AD for the purpose of biogas production, and may thus facilitate future development of agrarian economy. Biogas plants at farm level are good candidates for treating organic residues of municipalities and the agro-industrial sector in a cost-effective way and for providing territorially diffused electric and thermal power.

For more information the full article can be found at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03014797

Prediction of the nutrients value and biochemical characteristics of swine slurry by measurement of EC – Electrical conductivity

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The main objective of the present study was to quantitatively characterize the swine slurries in terms of physical, biochemical, and microbial parameters, in order to find an easy means for predicting nutrient matter by easily determinable parameter of EC content in swine slurries. The regression equations were presented and compared for nutrients and other parameters with EC. The data obtained could be useful for facilitating the implementation of Good Management Practices in South Korean swine farms as well as other countries. It was found that the precise characterization of animal waste is an essential guide for the development of new environmental technologies. Swine
slurries observed significant variations in the physico-biochemical properties, macro and micronutrients. Despite EC proved to be a good indicator for predicting nutrients (TN, NH3-N, TK, Na) and other parameters (SG, TS, VS, FS, TDS, TCOD, SCOD) in the slurry. Hence, single EC meter is satisfactory for in situ determination of slurry characters. The data and correlations could be used for systematic management of swine manure and estimate the nutrient contribution to the agricultural fields in South Korea as well as other countries.

For more information the full article can be found at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/09608524

Response to dietary digestible energy concentration in growing pigs fed cereal grain-based diets

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The objective of these experiments was to determine how changes in dietary DE concentration, achieved through graded changes in diet composition, would affect the performance and carcass composition of growing pigs. It was found that the value per pig was unaffected by increasing dietary energy content and returns above feed costs were reduced. Increasing the energy density of the diet for growing pigs through incremental changes in dietary composition had a variable impact on overall growth performance and carcass quality. Also increasing the dietary DE was found to have no effect on variations in BW at the time of marketing.

For more information the full article can be found at http://jas.fass.org/