Connecticut is set to unveil its first methane digester in Ellington next week.
Fifth-generation farmer Seth Bahler and his team at Oakridge Dairy Farm have spent the better part of the last year building the apparatus, which will be the first-ever 100% methane digester in Connecticut.
The process includes converting cow manure into natural gas that can be put into pipelines to run in homes and cars.
Large dairy cows produce an average of 80 and up to 100 pounds of manure a day. It takes about 2 pounds of cow manure to produce between 15 and 30 liters of biogas per day. Oakridge Farm has more than 2,800 holstein cows and has been working for more than a year on its methane digester, which is set to debut next week.
Cow manure, left to decompose on its own, produces methane, which is a gas that contributes to climate warming.
Turning manure into a renewable energy source has the capacity to power a year’s worth of gas production for 800 to 900 cars, Oakridge farmers said.
This is a sustainable innovation in the dairy industry that will meet 2050 carbon neutrality goals.
In 2022, another Ellington farm, Hytone Ag-Grid, was successful in launching a converter that turned methane gas into renewable electricity.
