EPA Aims to Standardize Evaluations of Manure Digesters

January 24, 2007

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a new protocol last week that intends to help standardize the process used to evaluate the performance of anaerobic digestion systems. Anaerobic digestion is a controlled process to produce methane from livestock manure. The methane can then be burned as a heat source or used to generate electricity. The new EPA protocol describes proper data collection to assess the performance of anaerobic digesters and establishes a uniform method of evaluating a project's operational reliability and economic viability. Meant for use by livestock producers, state agencies, project developers, and other involved parties, the protocol is intended to provide reliable, standardized information to system developers, the investment community, and farmers and ranchers. The protocol was developed jointly by the EPA's AgSTAR program, the Association of State Energy Research and Technology Transfer Institutions, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. See the EPA press release and the full protocol (PDF 240 KB). Download Adobe Reader.