AD plant nears completion in California

Installation and construction is almost complete on an anaerobic digestion plant scheduled to open at Calgren Renewable Fuels at the end of September in California, US.

DVO is behind project, which will be fitted with its Two-Stage Mixed Plug Flow AD technology. It is the company's first installation in California, and the state's only next-generation anaerobic digester.

The DVO anaerobic digester, built by Andgar of Ferndale, Washington, is designed to hold approximately 1.4 million gallons of manure and organic waste. Each day, the digester will receive 55,000 gallons of solid and liquid waste from Four J Farm Dairy, a nearby dairy farm with approximately 2,000 head of cattle.

Biogas, one of the many valuable by-products of the anaerobic digestion process, will replace thousands of gallons of natural gas currently being used by the Calgren on-site cogeneration facility to produce 55 million gallons of ethanol each year.

'The Calgren facility and Four J Farm Dairy will not be the only ones to benefit from the addition of DVO's anaerobic digester,' says Steve Dvorak, owner and founder of DVO. 'Our digesters reduce the environmental impact from farm waste greenhouse gas emissions by over 90%, pathogens in the digested waste are greatly reduced, often to the point of non-detection, and up to 97% odour reduction is achieved as biogas is burned.'