Anaerobic Dairy Digester Converts Methane to Renewable Natural Gas in Merced County

A crowd gathered at Volleman’s Family Farm Thursday, June 20 for a ribbon cutting as the celebrated bottled milk business and dairy made a commitment to lessening environmental impact by safely harvesting gas to help provide power to their neighbors.

This is done through a newly completed dairy digester. This digester captures greenhouse gases from the manure of the dairy’s over 5,000 cows and transforms it into usable natural gas for trucks, homes and electricity. Partnering with Maas Energy Works, the nation’s largest dairy digester developer, the Volleman’s project involved constructing a custom biogas facility using a covered lagoon and membrane technology. This cover creates an anaerobic (oxygenfree) environment where bacteria breaks down the organic material in the manure, producing biogas primarily composed of methane and carbon dioxide. The biogas is then extracted through a piping system and processed to remove impurities such as carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide, resulting in renewable natural gas ( RNG). The purified gas is carried through a 3.5-mile underground pipeline and handed off to Atmos Energy, which supplies the town of Gustine and surrounding areas with natural gas. This pipeline interconnection has been designed to add other central Texas dairy digester projects as the industry expands.

Originally Published by: The Dublin Citizen

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