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Scottish farm turns pig muck into power

pig muck into power

 

Energy production through solar panels, wind farms and bio-fuels has become a common practice, but have you ever heard of electricity being generated from pig slurry? If you wish to see it happen, then you need to visit a farm in East Lothian where it is actually taking place. Jamie Wyllie, the proud owner of the farm, has been granted £568,000 by the government to convert porcine dung into electricity and cash.

The Ruchlaw Produce Company in Dunbar has been set up to make it a reality. The company will make use of an anaerobic digester to convert pig slurry into power. The digester works by pouring the waste into an airtight unit containing bacteria, which partly break down the dung into methane gas. In the next stage, the methane is pumped into a biogas plant, where it is burned to generate electricity and hot water for heating systems. The left out material can be used as a fertilizer.

The added bonus of the new process is that the nearby neighbors get some relief from the smell of pig-derived fertilizers. This process should be able to produce 832MW of electricity and 629MWH of heat. The energy generated will be used for the farm and any surplus power would be sold to the national grid. The company is set on 137 hectares having 3,200 breeding sows that produces 70,000 pigs, which means there will always be enough muck to feed the digester.

The Scottish Government hopes the project, financed under its Rural Priorities grant scheme, will encourage other farms to transform animal waste into green energy as part of plans to fight global warming.

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Via: Scotsman

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