Home » Encon manure digester

Manure digester

Simple

No moving parts
Completely autonomous

Efficient

High biogas yield
Low heat consumption

Plug flow principle

12 days retention → small digester
>80% decomposition of organic matter
Digestate free of germs

Why is this digester better? More information

The Encon digester transforms your company from energy consumer to energy producer.

Thanks to the design of the manure fermenter, further manure processing is easier.

Virtually no maintenance required.

The Encon manure digester is one of the best performing digesters. The use of the patented Encon digester as a manure digester (mono-digester) gives such a high production of biogas that fermentation is also economically possible on a smaller scale. With a biogas yield of more than 40 Nm³ per ton of fresh cattle manure and its own heat demand of less than 15%, the Encon manure digester delivers more than double the biogas as a standard fermenter.
Encon Clean Energy supplies both the digester and the license. Also obtaining only the license is possible.

The Encon plug flow digester has the following features:

No moving parts such as agitators and the like in the digester
All parts that come into contact with liquids are made of stainless steel
The substrate is passed through the digester in a plug flow
The fermentation takes place under overpressure
The retention time in the digester is 9 to 15 days
55% – 70% of the biogas from the digester consists of methane.
The biogas yield from daily fresh cow manure is ± 40-50 Nm³ per m³

The Encon digester is a relatively small digester, more than half smaller than a conventional stirred reactor
Parts / lumps / stones or other heavy settled parts not belonging to the substrate can be removed in a simple manner while the digester is in full operation.
Extra safe, because one does not have to enter the digester to clean the digester
Relatively high residual value of the digester due to the residual value of stainless steel (certainly in comparison with the negative residual value of plastic digesters).

The F-type digester can be built as standard for capacities of 5 m³ (F120) manure per day up to 20 m³ (F480) manure per day. Larger dimensions of this type are technically possible, but the height can then be a problem (due to permits). In addition to the F-type plug flow digesters, such as the F120 (120 m³), Encon also supplies 3-stage digesters for larger capacities, an F-type digester providing the production of seed biomass for these 3-stage digesters.

The entire installation complies with NTA9766, therefore no environmental permit is required for this installation.

In addition to the technical benefits that the Encon digesters have over competing digesters, there are also some benefits that ot be reflected when operating the digester:

Safety

According to a survey by the Dutch Safety Board, 35 fatal manure accidents have occurred since 1980. In recent years, at least 3 serious manure accidents have occurred on average per year. Bearing in mind these accidents, we note that the Encon digester does not have to be entered to be cleaned. The locks in the conical bottoms simply allow the removal of settled parts and particles from the outside.
The space under the reactor can be entered through a door of “front door” dimensions. This space has ventilation openings on the top and bottom. Therefore, concentrations of heavy or light vapors will not form.
The pump sump for collection and mixing of the fresh manure with the digestate is provided with forced ventilation provided with a safety flow switch

Hygienization

Because the heat exchanger is built in at the Encon digester, and the heat exchanger isn’t continuously needed for the fermentation process, the heat exchanger can also be used to hygienize manure. An additional advantage of the fact that the heat exchanger is built into the digester is that the residual heat from hygienizing can be fed into the digester, this means that one cubic meter of manure can be hygienized with a net 20 kWh of heat. This makes the solid fraction exportable.

Stainless steel

Stainless steel has a long service life and can simply be modernized / adjusted by welding. Which is not easily possible with coated steel or plastic tanks.

Residual value

The residual value of the Encon digester remains positive, even in 30, 40 years the stainless steel still has a real positive value, which for steel or plastic digesters has turned into a negative value so that costs will arise when closing or renewing the installation.

Digestate

During fermentation a very large part of the organic dry matter is converted to biogas. This makes the digestate many times more fluid than the fresh manure. The video below shows the difference in viscosity between fresh manure and the Encon digestate.