Cody's Methane Generator Part 1: Putting it Together

Several years ago I built a prototype anaerobic composter for school; in this video I revisit that project and make some improvements.

[pkre]

“Of course it’s always the middle of winter when I decide to work on something like this”

- Cut to 2020 where Cody is throwing in sugar in a futile attempt to jumpstart a compost in the dead of winter. Never change Cody

[GoingGoneable]

9:45 "please don't tell me cody is gonna pour that without even a makeshift funnel"
...
oh my god

[TheLawnCareNut]

Never borrow tools from Cody, never! :)

[timbrown]

I like those clear gloves your wearing. It almost looks like you don't have any on!

[champ_]

1:45 "i was gonna do this but that is too simple", 4:02 "well that didnt work so ill replace it with something simpler"

[TheKingofRandom]

Awesome to see you tackling this Cody, I'm excited to see it progress. Human "waste" will produce methane. I've had successful tests with it after feeding it sugar.

[MichaelJones-nyot]

hey Cody, my parents work with koi and we use sodium thiosulfate to get rid of the chlorine in tap water. we've found that the active ingredient in dechlorinator evaporates after about a week once the container is opened. we use crystallized sodium thiosulfate and if you would like i can send you some

[alexgee]

Wadup? Love all the vids. We have a biogas plant in Germany that works by the same principle, digesting the pig poo from ours and neighbouring farms. By the time it has fully fermented over about 150 days there is basically nothing left but water and minerals that then get spread back on the fields as fertiliser. All the energy in the poo that would otherwise have evaporated into the atmosphere is converted into methane and used to drive stationary truck engines that are coupled to generators that feed into the national grid. The heat produced by the engines heats the pig barn and the neighbourhood. In a year this saves the equivalent of about 1.7 million litres of heating oil. The technology is still too expensive to make bg plants self sustaining but vids like this will get more people thinking about how to make the whole process simpler and more efficient. Good on ya.

[keithfiredive]

13:14
“If you guys are watching in the year 1218”
Un refutable truth that Cody successfully built a time machine.

[jorgedaniel]

8:00 I'm eating chocolate chips, but go on

[justice]

after finding your channel only about a week and a half ago, and watching the majority of your videos, seeing that a new video comes out gives me chills, YAY! also gotta love that utah weather, I witnessed the majority of the recent snow fall melt in a single day here in the south end of the valley

[PilotPlater]

"Of course it's always the middle of winter when I decide to work on something like this".

Ughh, same. Wiring new outdoor lighting fixtures and such when it's been snowing all week isn't fun.

[jamps_tv]

I can't believe this was four years ago loved this series

[MadJustin]

Once you have usable methane you should experiment with Bioluminescent Bacteria. I've always wondered about the feasibility of an ambient lighting system for walkaways and such.

[nagoyajon]

When a guy talks about what kind of droppings is better, that guy really knows his stuff!

[andrewbarlow]

This is a brilliant project, I'm looking forward to part II. I'd really appreciate it if you could give us a conversation of the temperatures into Celsius (SI units), I'm lost when you talk Fahrenheit.

[GladlyOnXbox]

Cool video, loaded it up before I went to bed then started binge watching most of your popular uploads, nice work

[ArtDigital]

Cody! please make liquid ozone and add it to your collection!

[Cooper]

Hey Cody, nice project, but as a microbiologist, I have some tips to improve your bioreactor:

First of all, since your feed tube seems to be open to the outside, oxygen will continuously diffuse into your bioreactor slowing down or even stopping anaerobic processes. Might be a good idea to attach a lid to it.

Secondly, it would have been so much more time efficient if you´d just jumpstart your culture with glucose to enrich the biomass concentration.

The idea of your manual magnetic stirrer is a step in the right direction, but if you really plan on having a decent efficiency you need a continuous homogenization with a batch this size. (Just had an idea of maybe implementing a sterling engine stirrer - since you are already loosing energy due to the large heat gradient from the barrel to the garage/outside. Might as well use it, but I'm no engineer so it could also have not enough power).

Your feed composition looks ok, but next time please try to break it down into smaller bits. It significantly increases the bioavailability (due to surface area, diffusion efficiency etc.).

And finally, if you have the possibility to heat it to around 36°C (97°F) do it, temperature makes a big difference if it comes to metabolic activities. But you might actually not have to heat that much since the reactor itself will produce a significant amount of heat.

That´d be all that immediately came to my mind after watching your video.
If you are interested in further ideas/discussion I'd be happy to lend my expertise.

[Taylor-obzi]

Hello Cody, i'm from Brazil and a Chemistry Techinician, and you are a inspiration to me.Thanks man, you are awesome.Your videos its so greta, I cant stop viewing.