I think I didn't want to know that, since I can't go.
The lunch was great, btw.
Hairyloon
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The lunch was great, btw. |
I imagine it was.
Can you do the next one on a not-Thursday, else give me more notice?
Nick
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I was just an invited guest. But, they're running two more days. Ask for an invite.
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Hairyloon
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I was just an invited guest. But, they're running two more days. Ask for an invite. |
When and where?
Nick
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Treforest is where. When, I don't know.
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Hairyloon
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Treforest is where. When, I don't know. |
What do they call it?
Sounds a bit cheeky asking for an invite to "that talk with all the gas and a free lunch".
Nick
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Something like the AD centre of excellence demonstration day.
You're after either Tim Patterson or Sandra esteves (sp?) I think. She's the centre director.
There's a contact us box on the site. I found they were very responsive via that.
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Hairyloon
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Was this it?
You know I'm shy: I like to make sure I've got the right place before I start asking silly questions.
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Nick
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Was this it?
You know I'm shy: I like to make sure I've got the right place before I start asking silly questions. |
Yep, that's the place. It was their first attempt at a day. They have funding, and a remit to engage with industry, to become a centre of excellence, and to help the biogas industry as a whole. The demo days are a chance for them to bring industry in, show off their capabilities and staff, to sell their services, and to find out what the industry wants, expects and needs. They have two further days planned, but outside of those, I found them very approachable and helpful.
If you simply got in touch, explained you were interested to find out more with a view to potentially setting up a small digester, I'm sure they'd welcome you for a quick show round, but the open day would allow you to talk to other people who are doing it, and can save you reinventing the wheel, or answer some questions.
Hairyloon
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I will do that, but is that a reason to stop discussing it here also?
We may think of other things to put to them.
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Nick
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No, not at all.
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Hairyloon
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My current thinking is to pump it into a bottle and run the house off it instead of the mains.
Ideally I'd like to simply connect the bottle to the house (through an appropriate regulator) and have a changeover tap to go back to the mains when the bottle runs out, but I can foresee a raft of problems with that idea. None of them insurmountable, except perhaps the rules, but I've got a spare boiler doing nothing so I could set that up on bio-gas and leave those problems for another time...
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Hairyloon
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Of course, this project has gone on a back burner for the time being, except insofar as I have successfully produced a bucket of burnable gas...
The big hurdle at the moment is the daftness of the idea: it has the shape of a very daft idea, but I cannot see what is actually daft about it.
Another minor thought occurred about it. If you install a biogas generator at the allotment and feed it with all the plant matter that you have no better use for, then that would mean that for you, there would be no such thing as weeds.
This would make it a lot easier to keep the plot "weed free" as required by the association rules.
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dpack
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i like the logic of that
my version is "those are not weeds ,they are a green pharmacy and a few snacks"
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Hairyloon
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my version is "those are not weeds ,they are a green pharmacy and a few snacks" |
What use in that context are grass, docks, and buttercups?!
dpack
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couch grass roots make a very effective poultice against green wounds especially those caused by soil bacteria.other grasses have other properties.
docks are a perfect remedy for nettles and some insect stings and among the many types there are medicines for burns scalds ,ulcers and other skin problems ,some will stem bleeding including that from stomach/intestinal infections and ulcers.
buttercups are rather harsh but have been used to raise blisters much like spanish fly to treat gout etc(there are better things for such problems ) but they are very good to cause a ugly but fairly harmless ulcer to increase one's begging appeal.
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Hairyloon
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Good to know.
The only flaw in that plan though is that I'm growing them in commercial quantities and that is also against the rules.
It's a hypothetical point anyway: on my plot nobody gives a monkeys what anybody grows, and on herself's plot the association is a law unto itself.
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Hairyloon
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At about that time I set up a little experiment to prove to myself that gas production is as easy as I though it was (pretty much it is): a load of weeds in a barrel of water, an upturned bucket on top with a tap in the bottom of the bucket.
It sat for a few weeks doing not a lot, whereupon I had a sudden idea of where I might find some of the right bacteria... and a week or so later I was rewarded with a blue flame.
It was a very low production rate (it is not a big barrel), indeed, I thought it may have stopped, so I did not worry too much about doing anything with it or leaving it going, but I came back yesterday after a couple of weeks away and found the bucket nearly climbing out of the barrel: presumably it has had a sudden big spurt of production.
Any guesses what has occurred?
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Mistress Rose
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The initial spurt might have been from the soft tissue, and now the more fibrous material is breaking down. Not too sure of this, but one possible explanation.
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Hairyloon
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That was the theory I'd gone to.
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