Abstract
As part of its ambitious Energy Transition Plan towards 100% renewable power Michigan State University (MSU) built an anaerobic digester facility in 2013. Annually it consumes approximately 22,000 metric tons of organic waste, predominantly food waste from the MSU cafeteria system and animal excrements from the MSU farms, and turns them into biogas and digestate. The digestate is a high quality organic fertilizer and replaces chemically produced fertilizers for MSU’s farm fields, which saves money at the same time that it conserves valuable resources. The biogas is combusted in high efficiency reciprocating engines and produces a constant electric power of 300–500 kW. The digester facility also serves as a living classroom for a wide variety of student groups: it hosts thesis projects for graduate students and senior undergraduate students in bio-systems engineering and other engineering and agriculture disciplines, it serves as a laboratory for regularly scheduled undergraduate classes, and it is a popular destination for K-12 school field trips. Thus the MSU anaerobic digester facility serves the entire sustainability education and outreach spectrum, in addition to its sustainability scholarship, research, and practical application purposes.
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Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank MSU Assistant Professor Dana Kirk for helpful discussions and for sharing the data for the MSU South Campus Anaerobic Digester feedstock composition, contained in Table 2, with him.
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Bauer, W. (2018). Turning Waste into Power: Michigan State University’s Anaerobic Digester. In: Leal Filho, W., Frankenberger, F., Iglecias, P., Mülfarth, R. (eds) Towards Green Campus Operations. World Sustainability Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76885-4_25
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