My friend at work owns a horse farm. They have 15 or so horses that produce a couple spreader loads of waste a day. The manure is mixed with sawdust. She is getting tired of getting stuck in her pastures to get rid of the waste. I told her she was also most likely impacting alfalfa yields thanks to constant compaction. She asked me how she could use the waste to get off the grid by generating her own electricity. Her electric bill is $500 month for the large barn and their house (heat pump). I told her generating electricity might be a stretch due to the power needed to run a generator.
I looked into steam production and electricity generation on a small scale but the few choices I saw were very expensive. High pressure steam boilers can be costly and dangerous if you don't know what you're doing. Even if you know what you're doing, try finding an affordable steam turbine. I thought a roots style supercharger might work backwards but $5K is a lot to spend on something that might not work at all. I then did some research on some Stirling engine companies but that option was cost prohibitive. Next, I considered gasification to run an IC engine based on the FEMA gasifier plans. Looks doable but her biomass is loose so I think there might be bridging problems. She could probably pelletize it but that is another step and more cost. Last of all, I thought of using a Goliath boiler http://www.newhorizoncorp.com/offer.php?id=17 to burn the stuff as is to produce heat for the house and her DHW.
Are there any ideas out there that would help her accomplish her goal or is heat for her home the only option. Btw, it sounds like the Goliath would run $14K.
I looked into steam production and electricity generation on a small scale but the few choices I saw were very expensive. High pressure steam boilers can be costly and dangerous if you don't know what you're doing. Even if you know what you're doing, try finding an affordable steam turbine. I thought a roots style supercharger might work backwards but $5K is a lot to spend on something that might not work at all. I then did some research on some Stirling engine companies but that option was cost prohibitive. Next, I considered gasification to run an IC engine based on the FEMA gasifier plans. Looks doable but her biomass is loose so I think there might be bridging problems. She could probably pelletize it but that is another step and more cost. Last of all, I thought of using a Goliath boiler http://www.newhorizoncorp.com/offer.php?id=17 to burn the stuff as is to produce heat for the house and her DHW.
Are there any ideas out there that would help her accomplish her goal or is heat for her home the only option. Btw, it sounds like the Goliath would run $14K.
