Pig farms now have their own power stations
"With an investment of 3000 yuan, you can build a 10-cubic-meter rural household biogas digester, and rely on it entirely for everyday lighting and cooking. Not only is the yard cleaner, but you can save more than 800 yuan a year on electricity and gas bills alone." Recently, this writer visited the home of Wang Jianyang, a villager in Xixin'an Village, Yageying Township, Lincheng County, Hebei Province. On the tile-faced kitchen counter sat a spotless gas stove. The owner turned the switch, and a blue flame leapt out. In no time, a kettle of water was "sizzling" away.
"Since our family started using biogas, we no longer have to suffer the smoke and fumes. Stir-frying, cooking, boiling water - it does it all, and the home environment is both clean and hygienic," said the hostess, Wei Xiuhong, happily.
Wang Jianyang has benefited from the county's actively promoted "one digester, three renovations" model rural household biogas digester construction project. The project turns rural production and domestic waste into energy, realizing the circular use of resources, while also solving the problems of environmental pollution and sustainable development faced by large-scale livestock farmers as they grow.
This writer walked into the pig farm of the Liujiahui Longxin Pig Breeding Farmers' Professional Cooperative in Shicheng Township. The first thing that came into view was not row upon row of pig pens, but a tall, large blue tank.
"That blue tank is a biogas tank!" Liu Jianlin, the farm's manager, told this writer. He had raised pigs for so many years, and business matters had never stumped him, but how to deal with the hill-like piles of pig manure every day gave him a real headache. In the past, he paid workers to haul the pig manure to remote places with few people around. It was tiring and costly, and it polluted the environment. Since the village built a biogas digester, the once-detested pig manure has become a "hot commodity," letting him use clean energy and solving a problem that had plagued him for years. "Biogas is used for heating and cooking, and the biogas slurry is used to fertilize the fields. Ever since this digester was built, pig manure, cow manure and the like all go into it. It's truly convenient, hygienic and money-saving, and I no longer have to worry about a place to pile it."
According to reports, the large-scale integrated clean energy biogas project piloted and promoted in Hebei Province was implemented at this farm in 2010. The project had a total investment of more than 2 million yuan and involved building and installing equipment that integrates biogas production, biogas slurry, biogas residue and power generation. The pig manure and wastewater from the farm are collected and fermented to produce biogas, and the biogas is then turned into electrical energy through a gas generator. The equipment can process about 10 tons of pig farm manure and 16 tons of wastewater per day, producing nearly 5000 tons of biogas slurry and 1300 tons of biogas residue fertilizer a year, and generating 170,000 kWh of electricity. At present, the farm has 1800 pigs on hand and produces more than 10 tons of manure, pig urine and other waste daily, and all the waste produced each day can be treated promptly. The biogas produced can be used for lighting, cooking and power generation; the biogas residue and biogas slurry serve as organic fertilizer, promoting the development of pollution-free green vegetable, fruit and grain production, protecting the environment while raising the added value of agricultural products; and the pollution-free grain in turn promotes the production of pollution-free pork, forming a circular economy industrial chain.
"The key is that huge blue tank. This is a fiberglass biogas tank made of new materials, and it is one of the notable fiberglass biogas tanks in the country. The waste produced by the pigs every day is promptly discharged into that big tank," Liu Jianlin said with a smile. "Now everyone talks about environmental protection, and we also want to raise pigs in an environmentally friendly way. This large-scale integrated clean energy biogas project has not only brought considerable economic benefits to our cooperative, but also benefited the surrounding villagers. The biogas slurry, biogas residue, biogas and electrical energy produced, besides meeting the needs of the farm, are also supplied to nearby farming households, helping surrounding farmers get rich together."