A family of entrepreneurs teamed up with several other family dairy farmers to gain support from legislators and find investors interested in helping to fund the innovative transition they had in mind. With the groundwork laid, in 2013, the family installed a facility called an anaerobic digester that produces what is called “Renewable Natural Gas” or RNG.
RNG is produced when manure and other organic waste is dumped into an anaerobic digester and heated. The heating process accelerates the growth of microbes within the waste that breaks down the organic matter and releases methane. Methane—the prime component of natural gas—is burned as it comes out of the digester to generate electricity and waste heat, which is also recycled.
Denise explains that the digester—which she describes as an enormous mechanical stomach—produces enough electricity to power 1,600 homes and to offset the farm’s “carbon hoofprint” by 85%. The heat generated by the process is fed back into the digester to keep the process going and also provides hot water to eight houses on the farm, replacing heating oil or propane as a heating source.
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