ABOUT BIO-TRONIC ENERGY-CA, LLC (BTE-CA)

THE IMPORTANCE OF MAXIMIZING METHANE CAPTURE FROM ORGANIC WASTES

BTE-CA’S MISSION AND BUSINESS MODEL FOCUS ON IMPROVING METHANE CAPTURE BY EXISTING AND NEW ANAEROBIC DIGESTERS TO INCREASE PRODUCTIVE USE OF THE METHANE CONTENT OF ORGANIC WASTE AND REDUCE UNCONTROLLED METHANE EMISSIONS.

  • “Methane is the next crucial, fast, climate-stabilization prize. There’s simply nothing that comes close for securing our near-term climate future…”

    – Rick Duke, Special Envoy for Climate
  • “Cutting methane emissions is the single fastest, most effective way there is to slow the rate of warming right now.”

    – Ilissa Ocko, Senior Climate Scientist, Environmental Defense Fund
  • “METHANE IS MORE THAN 25 TIMES AS POTENT AS CARBON DIOXIDE AT TRAPPING HEAT IN THE ATMOSPHERE.”

    – United States Environmental Protection Agency
  • “Cutting methane is the strongest lever we have to slow Climate Change over the next 25 years…We need international cooperation to urgently reduce methane emissions as much as possible this decade.”

    – Inger Andersen, Executive Director of United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP)

The Role of Anaerobic Digesters in Reducing Methane Emissions

When organic materials are left to decompose naturally in oxygen-free (anaerobic) environments like landfills and manure lagoons, methane-generating microorganisms (“methanogens”) digest some of the material and produce a biogas consisting primarily of methane. Anaerobic digesters allow that process to take place in a closed environment that captures the methane so it can be used in a beneficial way. BTE-CA offers integrated technologies that significantly increase the ability of existing and new anaerobic digesters to capture methane.

When the methane captured in anaerobic digesters is burned for useful purposes such as transportation, heating, or generation of electricity, it leaves CO2 – in the short term, a much less potent greenhouse gas – as a waste product. The net result is a much lower impact on global warming than would have resulted if the organic materials had been left to decompose naturally, without anaerobic digestion, as still is allowed to occur at the majority of the world’s dairy and livestock farms and related operations, urban landfills, and wastewater and sewage treatment facilities.

iBioBooster Overview

The iBB System for Anaerobic Digesters:

  • Accelerates multiplication of methane-producing microorganisms (methanogens) in the host digester, increasing the amount and methane content of biogas the digester produces, and thus the total amount of methane captured.
  • Is delivered and operated in shipping container-sized units positioned adjacent to or near any existing or new digester and connected to the digester with two small pipes.
  • Can be back-fitted to any operating digester without interrupting its operations.
  • Can be planned / designed into new digesters.
  • Is connected to a host digester to (1) extract small samples (e.g., 1 cubic meter) of organic matter for analysis and methanogen culturing and enrichment in small (1-3 cubic meter) incubator tanks in the iBB System unit; (2) return the methanogen-enriched material to the digester after the methanogen concentration has increased by a factor of 10³-10⁸, significantly boosting the methanogen concentrations and the amount and methane concentration of the biogas generated in the digester; and (3) repeat such cycles at optimized intervals.
  • Enhances anaerobic digester production of biogas with high methane content in processing diverse organic feedstocks:
    • Dairy, livestock, and poultry manure
    • Agricultural crop wastes, agro-industrial residues, and energy crops
    • Sewage and waste water at Water Resource Recovery Facilities (WRRFs)
    • Municipal organic wastes (e.g., food waste, plant clippings, fats/oil/grease)
  • Optionally, an iBB also can be connected to the host digester’s automated control system to provide enhanced monitoring, control, and stability of digester operation.
What Does it Do?

How We Work With Digester Owner/Operator Clients

BTE-CA offers to undertake a confidential pre-project Feasibility Study (FS) (3-4 weeks), at BTE-CA’s expense, with the digester owner/operator’s cooperation in providing small samples of feedstock and digestate, and available data on current digester system performance.

The FS report will provide the digester owner/operator a description of the potential for improvement in digester methane capture obtainable through the iBB System technology. It also will recommend the best mode of connecting an iBB to the digester system and operating the iBB to optimize digester system performance.

BTE-CA offers a variety of business approaches, tailored to the customer. One approach we offer: If, based on the FS report, BTE-CA believes an iBB will have a positive impact on a digester’s methane capture revenues and operating costs (reductions), BTE-CA, entirely at its own cost, will install, operate, and own an iBB at the digester, in return for a long-term contract giving BTE-CA a share of increases in digester revenues and reductions in owner/operator costs.

Data from the Field

Industrial-Scale Projects in Italy & China

iBBs have increased the anaerobic digester methane capture by amounts ranging from 8-30%. The range may be broader in any given iBB / digester application.
iBBs have reduced TOC, COD, and unrealized methane production potential in the host digester’s residual digestate and wastewater.
Results from the Field
© Bio-Tronic Energy-CA, LLC. All rights reserved.