The Salesian Agricultural School offers a wide range of rural-area-related educational opportunities, with different courses offered in agricultural, farming and industrial production. In each, courses range from cheese production to pig farming, from carpentry to artificial insemination of livestock. All these productive operations produce a large amount of unused waste. That is why the "biodigestore" now comes into operation.
"We think the biodigestore can be a technology that solves environmental problems, both in terms of clean energy and the need to dispose of waste," said Darío Perera, Plant Director.
According to Dr. Perera, the biodigestore will be used to generate gas to provide hot water and heating for the school, which hosts 300 students from Monday to Friday. "We do not have an accurate estimate of the savings we will have with the biodigestore, but we will gradually increase gas production," he said.
"The costs to run this technology are very high for a school with limited resources, so we will work with a lab the Salesians have in Germany, and establish links with the German government, which has funded this project," Perera said.
As a "fuel", the biodigestore will count on whey from the dairy industry, animal manure - mainly pigs, as the school has 60 sows, plus waste material from its 220 dairy cows and about 1,000 chickens.
"We were able to include related content in the various subjects offered to students. In addition, as part of their training, more technical issues are also dealt with to ensure the proper functioning of the biodigestore," concluded the agricultural school's director.
