World Sustainable Energy Days 2019

Dr Ehiaze Ehimen, Research & Innovation Co-ordinator at IT Sligo with the Renewable Engine project, has presented a paper on small-scale anaerobic digestion (SSAD) at the World Sustainability Energy Days (WSED) conference, held in Wels, Austria.  The WSED conference connects people from business, the public sector and research and empowers them to embrace a cultural change with respect to sustainability in society.

Anaerobic digestion is an attractive technology for the treatment of livestock waste as it can transform organic matter into biogas (a mixture mainly composed of methane and carbon dioxide).  IT Sligo are working alongside Organic Power, an ambitious SME based in Northern Ireland, with the goal of optimising the renewables capability and reducing the carbon footprint of Europe’s farming sector.  Organic Power plans to test, optimise and deliver a robust modular SSAD system, exploiting the science of digestion by utilising advanced pre-treatments to reduce the size (cost) of digesters dramatically.  The digesters have been designed to fit and operate inside two standard 40ft transport containers with few internal moving parts, including all necessary components so it is a stand-alone “plug and play” system.