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Bryan Pagel with the control panel for his digester equipment.

operations is a booming business. The biogas The process, which can be accomplished in a
the systems capture from manure can then be variety of ways, involves storing the manure
used as renewable natural gas to power homes in an airtight vessel and allowing microor-
and businesses as well as vehicles. ganisms to break it down, producing biogas
that can be turned into compressed natural
Dana Kirk, an assistant professor of engineer-
ing at Michigan State and manager of the gas and a manure product solid enough to be
Anaerobic Digester Research and Education spread on farmland.
Center, says interest in digesters is as high as Bryan Pagel, who manages a family farm with
he’s seen in his 20 years of work on the sub- 5,000 cows near Kewaunee, Wis., says the
ject, and says he’d be surprised if “any dairy system provides multiple benefits. The biogas
farmer of size, if they hadn’t had five or six is compressed into renewable natural gas and
people visit them already to try and talk them sold to a regional utility, DTE Energy.
into building a digester.” The solids that are left after the liquid is removed

“You literally have people just driving around for fertilizer are turned into bedding for the cows
the countryside and looking for farms,” he says, by running the material through a series of driers,
recounting a story from a dairyman who had large rotating cylinders, in which all the bacteria
just been visited by a confused-looking salesman are killed. The bedding can be reused repeatedly
who “walked in and handed them a brochure and saves the farm money. “The cows love to lay
on, you know, digester company XYZ.” on it. It’s like a giant pillow,” he said.

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