All the energy you need from compost?

[Matthew Jones]

I found it interesting the hottest parts of the heap have this white color to it. I do wonder if this is mold or the color of the specific bacteria.

The white stuff is Mycelium. It is the body structure of the Mushroom. The mushroom is the fruit.

You can lay any wood on the ground and it will always spring that white stuff. It a good thing.

You probably could build mulch piles from appropriate types of wood and grow "Sheeps Head" Mushrooms for food, as well as some medicinal types. You would just have to pasutrize your wood first, so it clean. Then infect them yourself.

More than likely the mycelium is growing as in symbiosis with the bacteria that is causing the heat and breaking down the wood into humus. The mycelium itself does not cause alot of heat.

Cheers
Matt

[Vortex]

Mart, Matt is correct-o-moon-doh.(sp?)
This is why I suggested in the post below

http://www.energeticforum.com/renewable-energy/4840-all-energy-you-need-compost-2.html#post73561

that you might want to get some stuff from
www fungi com
You don't need but just a tiny bit once, couple teaspoons.

The fungi/bacteria will get into the soil and then back into a new compost
pile then afterwards.

Of interest is:
6 ways mushrooms can save the world: Paul Stamets on TED.com
I believe the guy in the video is the guy that owns Fungi Perfecti: gourmet and medicinal mushrooms

In Greening the desert salt water was used, they got mushrooms.
I do not think the water quality will hurt anything. Pond, steam, rain, tap, salt, oil (YEP, oil)

[theremart]

Fungi...

Thanks Matt,

Something I noticed was there was a bunch of fire ants that were building in that area where it was real hot. I have read that some ants harvest fungi so perhaps this is the source?

My target is not to grow food just yet, I am targeting heat. I took reading this morning, and the water was down to 96 degrees in the tank, I imagine the bacteria are not very happy with me dumping 55 degree water on them Anyhow I had removed most of all the cardboard, I may of lost insulation I will see how this change effect the heap before I make more changes.

@ Vortex,

Thanks for the suggestions.

I will keep that in mind, I have seen that video about the fungi, and looks very impressive. I may consider that next summer when it gets muggy and hot perfect conditions for speading the fungi..

[theremart]

Next Update.

YouTube - Video 86 Jean Pain Update 3.wmv

[terence123]

no smell digester

practical folks at it:

YouTube - ARTI, India, Biogas from food waste


terence

[theremart]

RE: link

practical folks at it:

YouTube - ARTI, India, Biogas from food waste


terence

Something I caught this time as I watched this is they are using sugar to feed the biogas reaction.

Thanks for that link I really would love to have that plant in my back yard but I don't know what they used to make it here in the US.

Cheers

[theremart]

Cooling off..

YouTube - Video 90 Jean Pain update Heap cools off.wmv

Not doing as good as I would like, but learning as I go.

Cheers

[theremart]

From the other thread..

wantfreeenergy wantfreeenergy is offline
Senior Member

Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 156
Those are some good tips for picking up accounts.

I've also been curious how you were planning on being able to reduce your costs down to 15 cents per gallon of biodiesel? Is this simply by capturing the methanol?

Have you ever used ethanol to make biodiesel? I read somewhere that it's possible, but it's a little more difficult? That could really drive the price per gallon down. One could just use grass clippings from the field or pretty much anything and make some ethanol.


theremart - here's a really good site Making compost: Journey to Forever organic garden and I found the page that I learned from a few years back on how to make quality compost. The heat of the pile will be nearly double what you've been experiencing. So long as the temperature of 80 you say you have is farenheit.

Also I should note that I didn't put it in containers like they did. I just put it in a pile within a three walled structure made from stacked cinderbrick with plenty of gaps in the brick. I made a decently large pile of compost. And another thing I didn't do was, "#4 useful additions". I noticed the pile would really heat up when following the advice of, "Adding liquids; household compost activator".

I also followed the ratio of greens to browns. From the proper ratio of greens to browns, having a damp pile, and adding activator. I always had a HOT pile.

I dunno, just some things I did when I made a heaping compost pile. Maybe you already know this stuff, but I just wanted to share my experience incase it would be helpful. And it was always fun to see the freezing cold with ice and snow, then take a look at the compost heap with no snow or ice on it and see it steaming away.


Didn't mean to hijack the thread a little there. On with the biodiesel.

I was thinking last night about getting my GEET setup back onto another engine I've scrounged up. Then I could run biodiesel through it. But then I thought, wait a minute, I could just run the waste veggie oil without turning it into biodiesel.


I'm back for a little more hijacking. LOL theremart - I just watched your video about the heap cools off. And I don't the different process from doing a compost heap using yard trimmings vs a pile using wood chips. So I don't know how useful my experience would be for your situation. But one thing I was thinking of if you were to use the yard trimmings as compost was to tear out half or a quarter of the pile and start it new as the pile begins to turn to compost and loses it's ability to generate heat. And work around the pile in circular direction. Then you could just do a quarter section every week or so when the pile begins to become compost. This would keep the pile hot as certain areas cooled off. But I don't know anything about making a compost pile out of wood so everything I'm saying could be of no use in this situation. Also one other thing I recall while making compost using hay and straw was not to cover the compost pile with plastic. The pile needs to breath and if it's suffocated it'll stop making compost. But again I don't know if that holds true with wood compost heaps? I dunno, I'll bet you know more than I do. I haven't made post in a bit over a year.

Back to the OT. LOL

Oh yeah, 24, do you have a farming check account? I've been trying to figure in my head how to talk the person in charge of our farm account into purchasing all the equipment and ongoing expense for making biodiesel. I always get stonewalled when I bring up ideas and such, but I was wondering if it's tax deductable or if there are other reasons why it would be good to use the farm account to outlay the money for making biodiesel.
__________________
If you've made it this far then I've finally quit rambling.

[theremart]

Moved from the other thread.

theremart - here's a really good site Making compost: Journey to Forever organic garden and I found the page that I learned from a few years back on how to make quality compost. The heat of the pile will be nearly double what you've been experiencing. So long as the temperature of 80 you say you have is farenheit.
------------------------------------------

Yes, that is a great site and I recommend it, I have read what they had to say.

160 is the top temperature, and that has been my target, what I have been missing to get there is the green you need. All I have is brown. I don't have any grass clippings that I need to mix the correct ratio of brown to green.

-------------------------------------------
I'm back for a little more hijacking. LOL theremart - I just watched your video about the heap cools off. And I don't the different process from doing a compost heap using yard trimmings vs a pile using wood chips. So I don't know how useful my experience would be for your situation. But one thing I was thinking of if you were to use the yard trimmings as compost was to tear out half or a quarter of the pile and start it new as the pile begins to turn to compost and loses it's ability to generate heat. And work around the pile in circular direction. Then you could just do a quarter section every week or so when the pile begins to become compost. This would keep the pile hot as certain areas cooled off. But I don't know anything about making a compost pile out of wood so everything I'm saying could be of no use in this situation. Also one other thing I recall while making compost using hay and straw was not to cover the compost pile with plastic. The pile needs to breath and if it's suffocated it'll stop making compost. But again I don't know if that holds true with wood compost heaps? I dunno, I'll bet you know more than I do. I haven't made post in a bit over a year.

-------------------------------------------

Good ideas..

I have been trying 1 idea at a time and giving it about a week or two to learn from either my success or failure. I like your idea of doing a section of the heap and see if see different results. One of the next tricks that I may try is to take a section of the wood chips and soak them in the 55 gallon barrel so they soak in more moisture. This is something Jean pain suggested.


Thanks for the suggestions!

[Vortex]

Al Rutan: The Methane Man

Al Rutan: The Methane Man (not to be confused with mr methane aka fart man)
Why septic tanks generally don't produce adequate methane
Energy Independence: Why septic tanks generally don't produce adequate methane

Energy Independence: A low-cost solar heater using ubiquitous black polyethylene irrigation pipes? Why didn't I think of that?!
creating a cheap solar hot water system to improve our biogas digester's performance in the winter months

Free 7 Part Al Rutan Methane Bio-Digester Tutorial
Green-Trust -- FreeBook Download Page

A lot of stuff is on the web about this guy.. google him.

take care

[theremart]

RE: Al..

Al Rutan: The Methane Man (not to be confused with mr methane aka fart man)
Why septic tanks generally don't produce adequate methane
Energy Independence: Why septic tanks generally don't produce adequate methane

Energy Independence: A low-cost solar heater using ubiquitous black polyethylene irrigation pipes? Why didn't I think of that?!
creating a cheap solar hot water system to improve our biogas digester's performance in the winter months

Free 7 Part Al Rutan Methane Bio-Digester Tutorial
Green-Trust -- FreeBook Download Page

A lot of stuff is on the web about this guy.. google him.

take care

I have bought one of his videos, looks to be very good stuff. I think the process from India may even be better, but so many experiments to do.

Thanks for the input!

[theremart]

Latest update. Insulated the heap.

YouTube - Video 91 Jean pain update Insulation

[patriciathorney]

Thanks for informing us. =)

[Wade]

Very cool

I recently found this site and have been thinking about doing this kind of thing for sometime now, but had no numbers or technical research resorces, thank you all and god for the internet.

[gene gene]

@Wade-Offer of help

Hi Wade, Sent you a PM.
Let me know if I can help here at your shop with materials for what ever project you decide to start on first. This, plastic to fuel, biodiesel, ect.
I wonder how much gas we could produce with a Harvistor silo full of swamp grass, or switch grass? LOL They say there is magic in thinking big.
Gene