Home Brewed Methane Propulsion ?

The oceans are full of decomposing matter that is easily gathered. What are the possibilities of mounting an anaerobic digestor on a boat, filling the tank with ocean waste matter and producing enough Natural Gas to propel the boat ? Given that most boats don't travel very far or frequently I suspect that bio waste propulsion should be feasible for most boat owners.

 

1) That bio-material is neither easy to collect or available in sufficiant quantity to result in a useful quantity of fuel

2) Assuming it is true that most boats don't travel far or frequently how are you going to convince these owners to spend the cash on a prototype system. The owners that do travel far or frequently can't be serviced by the idea

 

I think this part, the assumption, is possibly the biggest challenge.

I know you are inland and not exposed to the ocean, but if you have ever been, you will notice that there is no discernible anything to collect on the surface of the ocean.

 

Most of the ocean is, and always has been, a desert.

 

You'd be far better served by a sailboat with solar panels, a wind generator, and maybe even a hydro-generator (for when under sail) storing power to batteries that will run an electric motor when needed. As others said, bio-material isn't frequent enough, nor is it particularly dry or clean-burning.

 

common sense here would help too.

If something is feasible and efficient in small scale it would mean that large scale would be many times more practical and efficient. This goes from ship engines to making soup for one person vs. 20 people.

If you could generate thousands of watts of net energy from fermenting biomass from the ocean we could make huge power plant on the shore, no?

 

With my other half's cooking I could rig up a length of high pressure hose to a properly shaped funnel and strap it to my ***. I'm not sure how much I could pressurize a bottle, so maybe direct injection?

 

I like the system. PAR: pictures please!
Regards
Walter

 

Whenever I've been to the ocean I've seen rotting matter everywhere. That is the main reason I like freshwater lakes and rivers better than the ocean. Whenever I'm by the ocean I feel like I'm in a cemetary because there is so much dead or dieing stuff everywhere. I simply can't picture any part of the ocean as a desert. I've always believed every cubic centimeter had something dead and alive in it.

 

If it wasn't for the dead stuff, there wouldn't be any alive stuff . . .

 

Ocean life is not evenly distributed. The coast and continental shelf have much more life than the pelagic zones. Don't forget that the reason you might be seeing so many dead things is because of human effects on the ocean. The coastal zones are very densely populated.

Also, biogas itself in the raw state, which is what you would have with only a digester on board is not suitable for running an engine. It is corrosive. And to get the same energy density of a liquid fuel it has to be compressed around 200 times. So you will need a digester, some kind of gas treatment system, and a compressor system.

 

Questor: How far offshore have you been? Most of that matter is concentrated in a small percentage of the ocean.

 

I experience this every morning, usually just after my coffee.

 

It sounds like he's talking about the beach/surf.

 

very funny PAR maybe you could hook yourself up to the national grid for us?