Methane/Biogas/Biodiesel

[kingofdice]

Well, I've got to jump on the West Virginia bandwagon. And I know a bunch of Sizemores, because I was raised in Clay county.

But back to this methane subject for energy conversion. My family gets royalties from natural gas wells on our property in Clay Co. At present, the latest thing before the WV legislature is property owner rights regarding methane..

Therefore, my question: Since Methane deposits usually pocket a few hundred feet or less under the surface, do such deposits exist in the D.R? If so, the cost to drill would be a lot less and would be a cheaper source of energy for the country. Has this been looked at by the Dominican government or private companies?

Last, not much mention of wind generated power? Wouldn't it be a hell of alot cheaper to generate electricity for the country, by putting up dozens of 250 ft. tall windmill turbines? This would reduce dependency on buying oil from Venzuela and other countries to supply generating plants.

Any comments?

[Hillbilly]

By Gawd!

We done talked about win' and such. We's gotten a feller like TOM F (?) who's dune a bunch o' stuff w' solar an' wind. Yah git mah drif??

Seems like there are three places identified as good wind sources, one out East, one near Samana and one ontheNorth Coast, iffin I recall.

I's purty shure we ain't got no methane, with all the holes they's been a pokin' into this place lookin' for water an' erl. Wud'a blowd 'em up fur sure...

Gotta go feed the hogs.. see all y'all later down the hollar...

HB

[kingofdice]

HB, ...thought there might be some underground methane in the D.R. I will peruse the archives on wind power, but seems like that would be a good way to go. Don't know if it would produce all the megawatts needed, especially for a metropolis like Santo Domingo.

[jsizemore]

If You Know R.T. Sizemore of Sizemore’s IGA in Clay he is my First Cousin. If you knew E.J. Sizemore who had the grocery store at the lower end of town in the early 70s and was killed in 1975 that was my dad. If you know John A. Sizemore of Hartland Retired Coal miner. That is my uncle. If you know Edward Jesse Sizemore of Clay Surveyor that is my brother. Every Single Sizemore in the County is my kin as well as every Sizemore in KY. NC. VA. And TN. but I can only tell you how close for the Clay ones.
Has anyone looked at wood gasification for small-scale generation?
John
P.S. my family has been in Clay or Roane County since before they were counties.
I will be in Sosua on 16 December for ten warm days.

[Keith R]

I mentioned in an earlier post experiments elsewhere in Latin America on utilizing methane recovered from landfills to power vehicles or run industrial boilers. I just ran across an interesting article about a project in the US intended to tap landfill methane to cut the energy costs of a SC Johnson manufacturing plant: http://www.jsonline.com/news/racine/mar03/123597.asp

Seems to me this could be possible done in the DR, perhaps to provide power to an industrial zone or a free zone...

You might say, well, Keith, the DR doesn't have a real landfill to tap. True enough, but a Brazilian environmental engineer friend of mine, Jose Henrique Penido -- in fact, the guy who runs such a project for Rio de Janeiro -- claims in a 1996 paper he gave me that

Even an open dump is suitable for a recovery installation, once it has received a sufficient quantity of waste (about 100.000 tons, which is the amount produced by a 50.000
inhabitants city in nine years) and is disposed with an eight meters thickness, at least.

The open dump has to be prepared properly to be able to tap its methane, but such recovery systems can be "extremely simple" according to Penido. The recovered gas can not only be used for industrial boilers and furnances or to power vehicles, but also for domestic use -- cooking, lighting, refrigeration etc....

[jsizemore]

In london in the Jack the Ripper days the street lights were gas lights. The gas source was sewer gas. So here we are trying to enlighten the third world when we should look at what works.
John