1. Biomass Dispenser Design team 5 Caleb MacDonald, Kyle Newman, Michael Pettet, and Ryley LeBlanc

2. Clear Identification of Design Problem Farmers are passing up the opportunity to capture methane produced from cattle manure Emissions are bad for the environment Opportunity to produce renewable energy Ability to save long term money Retrieved from www.tes.com

3. How do farmers currently deal with the issue? Farmers traditionally compost and use as fertilizer Retrieved from earthtimes.org

4. Available solutions Sell fertilizer Anaerobic digesters – used both globally and locally Retrieved from cdn.theatlantic.com

5. The Need For an Engineering Solution Significance to society and complex solution Environmental-“Pound for pound, the comparative impact of CH 4 on climate change is more than 25 times greater than CO 2 over a 100-year period.” Canada’s biggest producer of methane is agriculture; in fact “cattle account for 72 per cent of the total methane emissions” By harvesting the methane it could be used to subsidize the energy costs to run the farm.

6. The Need For an Engineering Solution Cont. It has many separate issues that need to be addressed in order to make this solution viable Effective collection method Storage and harvesting of methane to maximize the benefit safety of the operation The method of how to convert the methane into electricity A method of development and distribution of the fertilizer extensive financial calculation to decide on the size and the desired methods of this operation.

7. Methods and Limitations Capture, Store, Extract and Convert to electricity Limitations: o Amount of livestock o Amount of power needed o Budget/Cost o Size

8. Criteria Questions we need to ask: o Will this damage the surrounding environment? o How much power will this produce? o How much is the cost? o Can the farmers make a profit? o How does it compare to the alternatives?

9. How will we do It? The five pieces that will make this work.

10. Gathering Of the Manure The manure will be gathered in a ‘gutter’ the same way as before. The manure will be mixed with water, that will help with the transport and digestion of the manure. After being mixed with water, an auger system will carry the wet manure out of the barn

11. Storing the Manure According to research done by Penn State, a company who has similar products, the tank which is called a digester will need to be 135m^3 in size to hold enough manure for 14 days. The system will be created by modifying 14, 3500 gallon, industrial septic tanks. This allows for a 14 day cycle to be sure to remove all the methane from an entire days worth of manure.

12. Storing the Methane Pipes located at the top of the holding tanks will be used to transfer the methane from the tanks, into a new holding tank for the methane. While methane production is at a normal rate, a pressurized tank that will hold the liquid methane until it is ready to be used. From here the methane will be collected to provide fuel to a biogas generator

13. Safety Encase of over production, a burn off flare will be installed over the methane tank. This flare will insure that the pressure in the holding tank never gets to high. While this means some methane will not be used to create energy, being burned off is more environmentally friendly than releasing it into the atmosphere.

14. Reusing the Waste Once the 14 day cycle is complete and all the methane removed from a single batch, the batch can than be removed from the tanks. To remove the fertilizer, a conveyer belt system underneath the tanks will carry the fertilizer into a large pile. The new fertilizer does not need and special holding tank because it is no longer a danger to the environment. The farmer can now use the fertilized to sell or use on farmland.

15. Estimated cost of the System Resource NameDescriptionEstimated cost Gutter inside the BarnArea where auger takes manure from barn to holding tanks$200 Holding Tanks for ManureTanks that will hold the manure to digest for a 14 day period$61,300 Holding Tank for MethaneTank large enough to hold the methane$25,000 PipesThe piping required to connect the tanks and burner$7,000 PumpsThe compressors that will transfer the methane$30,000 AugerTwo of these will be need to transfer the manure$3,000 InstallationThe cost of installing the tanks into the ground.$1,000 Burner for extra MethaneBio gas flare that will burn the excess methane$1,500 GeneratorGenerator that will the methane and create power for the farm$30,000 Total Estimated Cost = $159,000

16. Project Timeline

17. List of Sources http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Best-Price-Life-long-free- service_1666793354.html?spm=a2700.7724857.29.46.ZJQbxL http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Best-Price-Life-long-free- service_1666793354.html?spm=a2700.7724857.29.46.ZJQbxL http://www.alibaba.com/showroom/methane-gas-storage-tank.html http://www.planet-biogas.ca/products/gas-flare/ http://extension.psu.edu/natural-resources/energy/waste-to-energy/resources/biogas/projects/biogas-from-manure http://extension.psu.edu/natural-resources/energy/waste-to-energy/resources/biogas/projects/g-77 http://www.plastic-mart.com/category/5/plastic-septic-tanks http://modernfarmer.com/2014/08/manure-usa/ http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/12/09/3040781/farms-cow-manure-renewable-energy/ http://www.suscon.org/cowpower/