Summary
Landgrabbing and monocultures are violating food sovereignty and create a tremendous threat upon water and food security. The main reasons are the increasing meat consumption and biofuel targets for drop in fuels, like bio diesel and bio ethanol.
Cold plasma technology for small scale production of syntethic diesel . (SD ) has however given a sustainable alternative, since it can be introduced easily without any engine modifications . The production cost per liter same as for 1000 times larger Fischer Tropsch diesel plants . The potential is giant since the synthetic diesel can be produced directly from biogas or by thermal gasification of any substrate with carbon like by example tires and waste from households. Introduction of biogas technology will also open up the possiblity for reclaim of denuded land that will contribute to rescuing of the rainforests, our rain cloud factories, thus securing one of our most important rainwater water supplies
Maintenance of soil fertility is a key challenge for humanity to create food security. Use of chemical fertilizer and linear flows of nutrients will never be sustainable since rock phosphate is a limited resource.
Recycling of organic waste is thus a key issue. There are two ways of recycling - composting and production of bio manure from anaerobic digestion in a biogas plant.
Composting is frequently used but has some limitations especially in metropolitan areas. It also creates huge losses of energy (heat) and nitrogen. Anaerobic digestion however can be adapted to any situation from family digesters to municipality digesters with several thousands m3 of reactor volume. During fermentation in the digester, around 50 % of the raw material is transformed into bio methane a flexible bio fuel with the highest exergy and energy content of all bio fuels.
At the same time bio manure is produced that can be spread directly in growing crops, since nutrients are mineralized during fermentation and can be taken up directly by the plants without losses.
Thus the use of bio manure from biogas plants will be a possibility for organic farmers to increase the crop yields compared to conventional farming.
Biogas technology is like introducing an industrial cow that produces fertilizer. In Sweden initially cattle where kept for producing manure and feedstock for fermented milk products. But when chemical fertilizer was introduced and electricity became available, milk and meat production became key issues for farmers and a disaster for humanity. They are now the biggest contributors to the global warming and declining health in the world.
However biogas technology offers an excellent solution. By switching from the real cow to the industrial cow, meat and milk producing farmers can get a sustainable alternative since the industrial cow feeds very well on grass and any organic waste including black water. In Sweden 4 out 5 fishes are used as feedstock for cattle. Thus declining fish populations can be restored by switching the cows.
Raw vegan food will lower the demand for cooking fuel and thus prevent deforestation and soil degradation. .The only cooking fuel you need is for making safe water for soaking beans and cereals.
A family digester feed by household waste and black water will produce around 1 m3 of biogas per day which will be more than enough for the raw vegan family.
On a global level 240 Mha of arable land is used for producing cattle feed. If we lowered our meat consumption with 80% we would be able to release 200 Mha of arable land for growing grass and energy crops that together with any carbon waste can support all our vehicles with bio methane. and synthetic diesel.
Monoculture crop production for Biodiesel and bio ethanol can be abandoned once and for all. Further on biogas technology will make it possible to reclaim denuded land that makes it possible for exploiters of the rain forest to operate outside the rainforest. Rescuing of the rain forest is the most important issue right now since the rain forest is a rain cloud factory that distributes rain to surrounding countries. Clearing rain forests is like stealing rain from your neighbor and without rain there will be no food.
Time is ripe for introduction of biogas technology in combination with cold plasma technology paving the way for introduction of 100% organic farming and 100% renewable vehicle fuel, biomethane and synthetic diesel.
Bjorn Marten, independent sustainable system designer
Sweden
Bjorn Marten