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biogas

From onion juice to factory juice

Bill and Steve Gill have gone from onion farmers to power producers.

Their company, Gills Onions of Southern California, on Friday will take the wraps off a system that converts up to 300,000 pounds a day of agriculture waste into electricity. At an event at its facility, Gills Onions will receive a check for $2.7 million from SoCal Gas, which offers incentives to customers that reduce natural gas consumption through on-site generation.

One of the main components of the system is an anaerobic digester that converts treated onion plant waste into biogas. That gas is then conditioned and … Read more

German electricity plant runs on corn waste

German scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems have developed an electricity plant that produces its biogas, a form of biofuel, from non-edible plant waste.

The Dresden, Germany, plant produces biogas from corn waste like husks and stalks, notably not cobs. Like other bioenergy plants, the biogas is then converted into electricity at the plant.

Because this electricity plant does not use any edible crop sources, the system, if scaled up for wider use, would not interfere with world food supplies, according to a statement from the group.

Not only is the plant agro-friendly because it avoids … Read more