Himark BioGas

Last updated
Himark Biogas
Industry Anaerobic digestion
Waste-to-energy
Founded1976
Headquarters,
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Evan Chrapko
Bern Kotelko
Shane Chrapko
Mike Kotelko
Trevor Nickel
Services Waste-to-energy technology
Engineering services
Website www.himarkbiogas.com

Himark Biogas Inc. is a waste-to-energy technology and engineering services company. Himark's provides services such as licensing of patented anaerobic digestion technology, conducting feasibility studies, carrying out project design, providing support on engineering and construction, commissioning, and rescue and resuscitation of digesters. [1] [2]

Waste-to-energy process of generating energy from the primary treatment of waste, or the processing of waste into a fuel source

Waste-to-energy (WtE) or energy-from-waste (EfW) is the process of generating energy in the form of electricity and/or heat from the primary treatment of waste, or the processing of waste into a fuel source. WtE is a form of energy recovery. Most WtE processes generate electricity and/or heat directly through combustion, or produce a combustible fuel commodity, such as methane, methanol, ethanol or synthetic fuels.

Anaerobic digestion Processes by which microorganisms break down biodegradable material in the absence of oxygen

Anaerobic digestion is a collection of processes by which microorganisms break down biodegradable material in the absence of oxygen. The process is used for industrial or domestic purposes to manage waste or to produce fuels. Much of the fermentation used industrially to produce food and drink products, as well as home fermentation, uses anaerobic digestion.

Contents

History

The group was founded in 1976 as a mixed grain and purebred cattle farm and has since diversified into various businesses including management of feedlot, licensing of waste-to-energy technology, and management of biogas and ethanol plants.

Biogas mixture of different gases produced by the breakdown of organic matter in the absence of oxygen

Biogas refers to a mixture of different gases produced by the breakdown of organic matter in the absence of oxygen. Biogas can be produced from raw materials such as agricultural waste, manure, municipal waste, plant material, sewage, green waste or food waste. Biogas is a renewable energy source.

Ethanol is a chemical compound, a simple alcohol with the chemical formula C
2
H
6
O
. Its formula can be also written as CH
3
CH
2
OH or C
2
H
5
OH, and is often abbreviated as EtOH. Ethanol is a volatile, flammable, colorless liquid with a slight characteristic odor. It is a psychoactive substance and is the principal type of alcohol found in alcoholic drinks.

Research

As of 2014, the company has a research and development expenditure of over $ 35 million and has laboratories in Edmonton and Hairy Hill, Alberta. [3]

Research and development general term for activities in connection with corporate or governmental innovation

Research and development, the

known in Europe as research and technological development (RTD), refers to innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products, or improving existing services or products. Research and development constitutes the first stage of development of a potential new service or the production process.
Edmonton Provincial capital city in Alberta, Canada

Edmonton is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city anchors the north end of what Statistics Canada defines as the "Calgary–Edmonton Corridor".

Technology

IMUS

The Integrated Manure Utilization System "IMUS" is an anaerobic digestion technology that uses organic waste to produce biogas, which is used to produce electricity and heat. The "IMUS" system produces organic fertilizer and reusable water as bioproducts. [4]

Electricity Physical phenomena associated with the presence and flow of electric charge

Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. In early days, electricity was considered as being not related to magnetism. Later on, many experimental results and the development of Maxwell's equations indicated that both electricity and magnetism are from a single phenomenon: electromagnetism. Various common phenomena are related to electricity, including lightning, static electricity, electric heating, electric discharges and many others.

Heat energy transfer process, or its amount (and direction), that is associated with a temperature difference

In thermodynamics, heat is energy in transfer to or from a thermodynamic system, by mechanisms other than thermodynamic work or transfer of matter. The mechanisms include conduction, through direct contact of immobile bodies, or through a wall or barrier that is impermeable to matter; or radiation between separated bodies; or isochoric mechanical work done by the surroundings on the system of interest; or Joule heating by an electric current driven through the system of interest by an external system; or a combination of these. When there is a suitable path between two systems with different temperatures, heat transfer occurs necessarily, immediately, and spontaneously from the hotter to the colder system. Thermal conduction occurs by the stochastic (random) motion of microscopic particles. In contrast, thermodynamic work is defined by mechanisms that act macroscopically and directly on the system's whole-body state variables; for example, change of the system's volume through a piston's motion with externally measurable force; or change of the system's internal electric polarization through an externally measurable change in electric field. The definition of heat transfer does not require that the process be in any sense smooth. For example, a bolt of lightning may transfer heat to a body.

Bioproducts or bio-based products are materials, chemicals and energy derived from renewable biological resources.

Anaerobic digestion technologies improves the local environment and community health, and helps in disease control, through effective hazardous waste disposal; fertilizer production; disease destruction; pollution prevention; odor elimination; and landfill replacement.

Integrated Bio Refinery

The model integrates the anaerobic digestion technology with other energy consuming system, such as Municipal Facilities, Farm Operations, Open Pen Feedlots, Food Processing, Ethanol Plants, and Green Houses. [5]

Type of waste

The technology can utilize various kinds of feedstock types, including Municipal Organics, Cow Manure, Slaughter House waste, Milk and Cheese Waste, Feed Lot Waste, Sand Laden Waste, Food Processing Waste, Ethanol Co-Products and Human Waste. [6] [7] [8]

Related Research Articles

Compost organic matter that has been decomposed

Compost is organic matter that has been decomposed in a process called composting. This process recycles various organic materials otherwise regarded as waste products and produces a soil conditioner.

Landfill gas is a complex mix of different gases created by the action of microorganisms within a landfill. Landfill gas is approximately forty to sixty percent methane, with the remainder being mostly carbon dioxide. Trace amounts of other volatile organic compounds (VOCs) comprise the remainder (<1%). These trace gases include a large array of species, mainly simple hydrocarbons.

Renewable Natural Gas (RNG), also known as Sustainable Natural Gas (SNG) or biomethane, is a biogas which has been upgraded to a quality similar to fossil natural gas and having a methane concentration of 90% or greater. A biogas is a gaseous form of methane obtained from biomass. By upgrading the quality to that of natural gas, it becomes possible to distribute the gas to customers via the existing gas grid within existing appliances. Renewable natural gas is a subset of synthetic natural gas or substitute natural gas (SNG).

A mechanical biological treatment system is a type of waste processing facility that combines a sorting facility with a form of biological treatment such as composting or anaerobic digestion. MBT plants are designed to process mixed household waste as well as commercial and industrial wastes.

Energy crop

An energy crop is a plant grown as a low-cost and low-maintenance harvest used to make biofuels, such as bioethanol, or combusted for its energy content to generate electricity or heat. Energy crops are generally categorized as woody or herbaceous plants; many of the latter are grasses of the family Graminaceae.

Sewage sludge treatment Processes used to manage and dispose of sewage sludge produced during sewage treatment

Sewage sludge treatment describes the processes used to manage and dispose of sewage sludge produced during sewage treatment. Sludge is mostly water with lesser amounts of solid material removed from liquid sewage. Primary sludge includes settleable solids removed during primary treatment in primary clarifiers. Secondary sludge separated in secondary clarifiers includes treated sewage sludge from secondary treatment bioreactors.

Biodegradable waste includes any organic matter in waste which can be broken down into carbon dioxide, water, methane or simple organic molecules by micro-organisms and other living things by composting, aerobic digestion, anaerobic digestion or similar processes. In waste management, it also includes some inorganic materials which can be decomposed by bacteria. Such materials include gypsum and its products such as plasterboard and other simple organic sulfates which can decompose to yield hydrogen sulphide in anaerobic land-fill conditions.

Digestate material remaining after the anaerobic digestion of a biodegradable feedstock

Digestate is the material remaining after the anaerobic digestion of a biodegradable feedstock. Anaerobic digestion produces two main products: digestate and biogas. Digestate is produced both by acidogenesis and methanogenesis and each has different characteristics.

Source Separated Organics

Source Separated Organics (SSO) is the system by which waste generators segregate compostable materials from other waste streams at the source for separate collection.

The Jundiz recycling plant is located in the Basque Country, particularly in Vitoria-Gasteiz Jundiz Álava. This place is responsible for recycling the city garbage. The trash is converted by a physical-chemical or mechanical process to submit a substance or a product already used to a cycle of total or partial treatment for a commodity or a new product or raw materials from waste, introducing them back into life cycle. This occurs at the prospect of depletion of natural resources, macro economic and eliminate waste efficiently.

Resource recovery is using wastes as an input material to create valuable products as new outputs. The aim is to reduce the amount of waste generated, therefore reducing the need for landfill space and also extracting maximum value from waste. Resource recovery delays the need to use raw materials in the manufacturing process. Materials found in municipal solid waste can be used to make new products. Plastic, paper, aluminium, glass and metal are examples of where value can be found in waste.

Harvest Power

Harvest Power, Inc. is a privately held organics management company headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts that specializes in converting food waste and yard waste into biofuel, compost, mulch and fertilizer. In 2014 Fast Company named it one of the most innovative companies in the world.

Dr. Sharad P Kale is a Scientist and is known for developing Biogas plant Based on Biodegradable waste resource (Nisargruna). He is the head of Technology Transfer and Collaboration at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. On 26 January 2013 the Government of India honoured him with the Padma Shri Award in the Discipline of Science and Engineering.

IMUS is an anaerobic digestion technology that converts organic material into biogas that is used to produce electricity, heat and nutrients. The technology uses waste such as municipal waste, cow manure, sand laden feed lot waste, and food processing waste. The technology can be integrated with other industrial process, such as municipal facilities, open pen feedlots, food processing, and ethanol plants. The technology was developed in 1999 by Himark BioGas.

Reuse of excreta Safe, beneficial use of animal or human excreta

Reuse of excreta refers to the safe, beneficial use of animal or human excreta, i.e. feces and urine. Such beneficial use involves mainly the nutrient, organic matter and energy contained in excreta, rather than the water content. Reuse of excreta can involve using it as soil conditioner or fertilizer in agriculture, gardening, aquaculture or horticultural activities. Excreta can also be used as a fuel source or as a building material.

HomeBiogas is a biogas company based in Beit Yanai, Israel. The company produces and sells anaerobic digesters that convert organic waste into methane gas and liquid fertilizer.

Digeponics (pronounced die-jeh-ponics, as in digestion) is a method of agriculture which integrates the products of anaerobic digestion, including CO2 and digestate, with greenhouse cultivation of vegetables.

References

  1. "North America's first Integrated BioRefinery now utilizing 73,000 Tonnes /Year Municipal Solid Waste diverted from landfills in the Metro Edmonton area".
  2. "Turning 500 Tonnes of Cow Poop a Day into Renewable Energy".
  3. "Hitting a High Mark".
  4. "Biogas innovator Himark makes breakthrough into U.S. market".
  5. "Highmark receives integrated biorefinery platform patent".
  6. "Himark BioGas Now Digests 73,000 Tons/Year of Municipal Organic Waste Using Its Patented Anaerobic Digestion Technology".
  7. "Betting Big on Biogas".
  8. "Himark to construct 3 AD plants in U.S. focused on food wastes".