75 kW farm power station - electricity from manure and slurry - a classic

Gert Ruschulte makes electricity from manure, slurry and fodder remains - with the amounts that accrue daily on his farm, a lucrative form of recycling. 15 to 17 cubic metres of dairy cattle slurry, 1.6 tons of cattle manure and 400 kilogrammes of fodder remains ferment in his 75 kW farm power station.

Dairy farming

In Ohne, a small place in South-West Lower Saxony, directly on the border to North Rhine-Westphalia, Gert Ruschulte has dedicated himself to dairy farming. About 200 cows and 160 female breeding animals are in his stalls. 105 hectare of agricultural land and three hectares of permanent pasture belong to the operation.

Two container technology instead of storage room

The 75 kW bwe biogas plant is fed exclusively with remaining materials from the operation. The aid of choice is a stationary fodder mixing machine: A worm-drive conveys the 12.5 cubic metres of solid material into the fermenter- This is the most effective feed-in technology for the farm in Ohne.

To optimise the gas yield gas storage roofs are installed over the fermenter and the fermentation residue store. This has the advantage that Ruschulte can continue to operate the plant via the fermenter, even if, for example, the fermentation residue store has to be opened to change the agitator.

The new two container strategy makes the storage more flexible and simplifies the control. As a result of the gas also remaining in the fermentation residue store, the quality of the gas is improved immensely. An additional 3000 cubic metres of storage capacity were created on the farm.

By the way: In 2015 the dedicated farmer was awarded the CeresAward for the “Outstanding personality in the agriculture sector” by the trade journal dlz. Ruschulte shares his work with friends of agriculture via Facebook.