We will design and build a biogas digester that collects methane gas from cow manure.

Will be used as a
renewable energy source that can power facilities on campus. Examples of Project Application: Butane
tank that can be used for stoves, bbq, and household necessities School facilities on campus → heating for
solar building Scientific Instruments → bunsen burner, hot plate, etc.

There is a global issue of pollution that has no solution in sight. We need to find alternative ways to
produce the energy we need to live. 20% of our landfills are filled with food that could be used for good.
Biogas chambers are used all over the world to combat against the harsh pollution our planet is facing.
Natural way to produce an applicable gas for a home environment.

Our group conducted a google survey asking people about which aspects of our project we need to be
aware of apart from the set requirements by our teacher. We learned that people would prefer the project
off campus due to the fear of the smell.

Some of our requirements are that we have to be able to construct the entire project within a small high
school budget. We also must be careful of noise and smell due to the fact that the project is on campus. As
well, we have a few sub-functions that we looked at to implement into our project to improve efficiency.

Below are the different aspects of our project that could be manipulated to improve efficiency and overall
production of gas. Throughout out the research for the project we were able to determine multiple ways to
store the gas, the shape of the IBC container, and the different types of manure and food that could be
placed in the digester.

As well, a key part of our project was that we wanted to determine early on how we would be able to have
the created gas from the biogas digester applicable in our everyday lives. Since we spend a lot of our time
at our school we concluded that there were many ways we could implement the reusable energy on
campus. Our ideas ranged from heating the stem solar hut to an exhibition night BBQ; showing our group
that reusable energy in the form of biogas can have extremely beneficial application.

● Storage of gas
○ Collection in a balloon
○ Upside down container over water
○ Shipping container via. Ms. Mathews
○ Leave inside tank until its needed
○ Propane Tank
● Size of IBC/ container
○ Small container for more concentrated reaction
○ Larger container for mass reaction
○ Funnel-shaped container
○ Heated tank to speed up reaction times/Greenhouse
○ Insulated tank to control the temperature
 ● Types of manure/ food
○ Chicken Fecal Matter
○ Horse Manure
○ High sugar content vs low sugar content
○ Cow manure
○ Deer pellets/Goose Poop

● Use of Gas
○ Power Solar Hut on Campus
○ Exhibition Night BBQ
○ Leadership BBQ
○ Bunsen burners in the chemistry lab
○ Classroom

Below are the specific step by step instructions that individuals must take to build a replica of our biogas
digester. These instructions also include all the correct measurements for connecting parts.

Instructions:
1. Fill 14-gallon buckets with manure bucket 1
2. Drill ½” holes in tops of buckets 1
3. Apply rubber gaskets to holes
4. Attach PVC pipes to look like the picture
5. Connect 1-way valve entering bucket 2
6. Run PVC through ½” hole at bottom of bucket 2
7. Fill bucket 2 with water
8. Place a bucket 3 upside down in the water with no air inside
9. Drill ½” hole in top of bucket 3 with rubber gasket
10. Run PVC out through the top of bucket 3
11. Connect ½” PVC to 1” PVC
12. Fill 1” PVC with steel wool and connect back to ½” PVC
13. Lead the rest of the PVC to air compressor
14. Attach compressor to propane tank
15. Add epoxy to seal needed areas

Special functions of your project are: nitrogen-rich fertilizer can then be used for the garden at San Marin.
Steel wool purifier removes H2S2 from the methane allowing us to pump it directly into the tank to make
sure the methane is as pure as possible.
For the future, we would like to Reducing the overall size but keep the same methane production
efficiency with heat, constant inflow, and constant outflow.

In this experiment we tested the effects of hot vs. cold weather on the production of methane
and found a 0.2 liter per week increase over the two week testing period. This can be seen in
the graphs below

In this experiment we did not see much methane production due to human error. The
connecting pieces for our bio gas digester were not air tight which allowed for the escape of the
methane produced