Leaffoney NS

Engineers create tools and technologies that help the world to become cleaner and a greener place. The Xperience Engineering project aims to uncover and celebrate the role that Engineers play in creating a safer and sustainable future for us all. Participating schools will look at engineering feats and inventions in their communities which have a link to water or environmental engineering.

For our project we looked at how a Biodigester could be used in a domestic setting to manage waste and produce clean energy/biogas.

A biodigester is used for the production of biogas. Biogas is used as a substitute for natural gas. Biogas is used in a range of situations from cooking, heating and lighting, to electricity generation and vehicle fuel. A Biodigester also produces effluent slurry that is used as a fertilizer in a range of agriculture applications. Biodigesters are used in many countries to process animal and certain plant and agricultural waste. It is also used as a sanitation system for the processing of human waste.

View our Biodigester Designs

Anaerobic digestion is where small organisms breakdown the biodegradable material in the absence of oxygen used to manage waste. It is used as part of the process to treat wastewater. This helps to reduce the emission of landfill gas into the atmosphere which helps to keep our atmosphere clean.

Anaerobic digestion is wildly used as a renewable energy source because the process produces a methane and carbon dioxide rich biogas suitable for energy production, helping to replace fossil fuels. The nutrient rich digestate which is also produced can be a fertilizer.
As part of this project our school visited the local sewage treatment system in Enniscrone Co. Sligo to see how the waste water is treated.
We had the idea that we could investigate and develop a biodigester ( anaerobic digester) as an integrated waste management system in the home.

We made a short film for the project called "We go Eco" which can be viewed in our Gallery.