Utilizing Methane for Home Use

It's going to depend on the quality and energy content of your gas....the lower the btu content, the larger the jet needs to be....the natural gas might work....the propane jets being smaller would require a high btu content....

"There are also two main differences in the way that LPG (Propane) and natural gas (Methane) are burnt. The first difference is in the energy content. LPG has a higher calorific value, or energy content, so less gas is required to produce the same amount of heat.

The second difference is in the oxygen to gas ratio required for proper combustion. LPG requires an oxygen to gas ratio of approximately 25 to 1. Natural gas requires a ratio of around 10 to 1. To achieve this difference, LPG is typically provided in a smaller quantity but at a higher pressure, drawing more oxygen with it into the combustion process."
http://www.elgas.com.au/blog/486-comparison-lpg-natural-gas-propane-butane-methane-lng-cng

SolarEagle, thank you for your input and links. I plan on running it through a scrubber to hopefully make it a better quality gas. I guess I will experiment and see what I come up with. I am leaning towards a 1,000 gallon set up but can scale it up or down depending on how well it works out. If nothing else I'll end up with great fertlizer.

There's a reason you're not finding much on the net. Don't waste your time.

Unless you have a lot of manure or digestible matter to use and a large plant to process it, and a way to compress and store it, it's not worth it.

Just burn the wood.

Lyn, It's my understanding that plant material produces a better quality of methane and more quantity. I have access to more plant matter and manure than I can probably be able to use. Since most appliances use around 10psi or so, pressure shouldn't be a huge issue or so I hope. I have plans to buy a pellet mill so I can use them in my modified wood gasifier stove. Also since I plan on using the methane as it's being made storage isn't a concern. To be honest I'm more interested in how to rather than why I shouldn't!

Luke S,

I think that for the appliance gas pressure instead of 10 psi, you meant 10" w.c. (water column; 14.7 psi is about 30' water column, so 10"w.c. is slightly less than 1 psi). Also, natural gas in the USA is methane, so you are producing the same chemical. The points raised by others are valid, regarding the purity of the gas being produced. I applaud your interest and willingness to investigate.

--John M.

John, while looking through different videos and reading I had heard or perhaps read 7.5" to 11" which my tired old eyes translated into psi. I have a slight case of dyslexia and end up reading things that on a second glance are not always really there. 10 psi could have gotten interesting. Thank you for setting me straight. I figure nothing ventured nothing gained and appreciate the assistance!

Luke

Here's some links that might guide you to success.....

http://buildagasifier.com/

http://www.build-a-gasifier.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2gGgolJXiI

Thank you, again, SolarEagle. I have experimented with a small gasifier stove just to see and was rather impressed with the results! That is what in part lead me to where I am now. I'm also building some solar air heaters and a solar batch water heater is taking shape. I keep seeing lots of people saying such things are not worth the effort or the pay back period is so long it makes no sense. As far as I am concerned, I am learning new skills and becoming more self reliant in the process and I find it rather difficult to place a price tag on that! In the event of an economic collaps, which I can see looming in our near futhure here in the US if people keep thinking the governent can keep taking care of them and it's all free, I will still have a modern life style or at least still be some what comfortable unlike so many countless others who feel such things are too expensive or simply not worth the effort.

That's great, just remember survival begins with a safe approach.....be sure you install safety mechanisms with any equipment you might construct...

Most certainly will, I won't even undertake a project until I feel confident that it will be as safe as possible and that I have a good understanding of the system I'm working with. Never have really been much on taking chances where health or saftey are concerned which is why I asked for help, wasn't certain if the jets in my water heater could work with methan or not and wasn't comfortable just trying it to see. My wife would frown on my efforts if I leveled the house! :-)

Back about 15 years ago we had a farmer (pig) who set his pigs on a open floor and let the manure run in to a containment. then he pumped it in to a separate tank to wait for it to off gas then compressed it into a propane tank. then he used it to heat his house run a generator to power his home and buildings as well as his gas powered trucks were converted to run on the gas. The last time I saw him he was still running the system at a profit not a loss. They called it an anaerobic digester. In my humble opinion it worked really well for him, he said he had to work out a few kinks but nothing insurmountable with a little common sense. P.S. around here I burn corn cobs since they are free, and boy do they burn hot as well as fast with almost no ash to speak of.

LOCKDUKE, That sounds great! Not 100% certain how well this will work for me but I certainly feel it's worth the time and effort to try it and see. There is a green house I believe will buy the spent material for fertilizer and I will use some in my ever growing garden. I have my starter batch brewing now and hope to have at least a small digester up and running in a week or two. I'm sure there are lots of little details to figure out as I go but for me at least the learning is what makes it interesting and worth while no matter the final out come. I have seen enough stories however to make me think this is a great idea and well worth pursuing the production of methane for home use.

I do remember one of the critical things he told us was which bacteria they used to get it started was very important. As it meant different rates of digestion and gas output. One other item was that the compressor was set to compress the gas to a storage tank like a propane tank on wheels so that he could move it around the property. one other Item was there was a bladder on the digester, when it inflated that is when they compressed the gas.

You might want to find some Indian sites as this is promoted in Indian villages and many have the methane plant for cooking.

Search for bio-gas for cooking.

Gajanan Phadte

Thank you I will try that!

Mother Earth news magazine had articles in the past on methane production/home use. Many of the the "prepper" blogs/sites also have info on methane systems/uses.

Good luck!

Thank you Lonster, I've looked at several prepper sites and on Mother Earth, seems most of the information is a bit lacking at least for some one learning from scratch as I am doing and were also for batch digesters, I want to be able to feed mine on a daily basis as I have acess to more material than I can hope to use. I did find some videos on youtube that look promising and I've started construction on a 550 gallon digester using plastic chemical totes from a local dairy and I can get how many other totes I may need. I spray painted them black like in the video however after 4 heavy coats of paint I can still see some light through the sides and not sure if it's too much light for anarobic activity or not. I guess I can build boxes around them if I need too. When it's all said and done they will be sitting inside of a green house that I'm building from old 3' X 6' steel window frames I was lucky enough to salvage from an old school that removed them.

Luke,

I don't see the connection between anaerobic conditions (no oxygen present) and blocking of light, unless it is to prevent photosynthesis to produce oxygen in the digester. I don't have any texts on this, so what have you read?

--JMM

Sorry for the late reply but I just saw your comment today. From what I have read if light enters into the digester it will cause algee to grow which will produce oxygen.