On October 17, Energy Vision announced the Dickinson College Farm anaerobic digester was one of three winners of its 17th Annual Leadership Awards recognizing renewable energy projects in the U.S. that reduce greenhouse gas emissions by converting organic waste into sustainable energy.

Dickinson College Farm is building one of the smallest, both as a hands-on learning resource for Dickinson students and a replicable model for other small farms nationwide.  [Read more here.  Read more here.]

The digester processes waste from a neighboring farm’s dairy cows, food waste from the College’s dining hall and local businesses, and spent grain from a local brewery.

This eliminates farm runoff into the pristine Yellow Breeches Creek is nearby, avoids methane emissions, harnesses the biogas, and generates renewable electricity to power the college farm and sell back to the grid.

“We're honored to be recognized by Energy Vision for our work bringing family farm biogas technology to life here in the US,” said Matt Steiman, Dickinson College Farm’s Energy Projects Manager, who accepted the award.  “Prior to our project, the majority of biogas digesters in this country were built on much larger dairy farms. 

“There are 5000 dairy farms in Pennsylvania with an average size of 85-100 cows.  There are also thousands of tons of recoverable food waste being landfilled in our state,” said Steiman.  “Dairy and food waste are low-hanging fruit for climate change mitigation through conversion into renewable biogas. 

“The technology we are piloting presents an important leap towards expanding renewable energy generation and greenhouse gas reduction on farms in the mid-Atlantic,” Steiman said. “Ours will be both a working system generating power for our farm and an additional 30 homes, as well as a public-facing demonstration piece used for farmer and youth education.  We'll consider our project successful when other small farms in our region adopt this technology.”

Visit the Dickinson College Farm webpage for more information.

(Photo: Matt Steiman, the farm’s livestock and energy projects manager, with a sample container of the waste products the farm is transforming into a burnable gas.)

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-- DEP Bans Sale Of Trexonic Electronic Products For Not Complying With PA’s Electronic Waste Recycling Law; E-Waste Recycling Law Broken  [PaEN] 

-- Dickinson College Farm Anaerobic Digester Project Wins National Recognition  [PaEN]

-- PA Resources Council, Partners Expand Traveling Glass Recycling Bin Program To Pilot In Delaware County - Oct. 21-26 [PaEN]

-- PennDOT, Keep PA Beautiful Name 33 Students As The 2023-24 Young Ambassadors Promoting A Clean And Beautiful Pennsylvania  [PaEN]

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[Posted: October 17, 2023]

10/23/2023