Cutaway image of the Avatar digester

 

THE AVATAR ADVANTAGES

 

  • The Avatar Anaerobic Digester integrates waste management, biogas production, cogeneration of electricity and bio-by-product sales to provide the farmer with and economically profitable and sustainable solution to manure handling. 

  • The system is modular and scalable allowing adjustment to changes in herd size/operations.

  • The digester is above ground, greatly reducing risk for contamination of local watershed 

  • The system is a modular non-fixed and transportable asset, which is self-collateralizing and officially recognized as a piece of farm equipment. All other digesters on the market are fixed assets/in ground installations.

  • The fiberglass hulls have a life expectancy of 25-30 years compared with the 15 year life expectancy of other systems.

  •  The system is fully automated and runs 24/7 with limited labor and maintenance. 

  • The Avatar Digester can be remotely monitored by computer or smart phone. 

  • The Avatar Digesters can be completely cleaned out in 3-5 days as compared with weeks and months in other systems.  The modular design ensures that systems with more than one module can remain functional during clean the cleaning process. 

  • The unique features of the Avatar system allow it to be dismantled and resold as require

 

Avatar R & D

Avatar Energy, LLC is committed to providing the best product available to our customers. In order to ensure that new ideas and concepts are identified, Avatar Energy has put in place a multidisciplinary Research and Development (R&D) program in Burlington VT to identify and evaluate new concepts which further optimize the anaerobic digester system. The R&D program strives to identify new concepts by several different means:

1) conducting basic science and microbiology research of source material;

2) improving the mechanical design of the system;

3) establishing collaborations with academic institutions.

Once new concepts have been identified and vetted, Avatar Energy has an active intellectual property group which then patents new ideas/designs to help preserve ownership for Avatar.

 

 

Science and Microbiology Research

 

Avatar Energy has an active applied science and microbiology program in place to help identify new concepts to optimize anaerobic digestion and biogas production. A dynamic program has been implemented under the direction of Dr. Guy Roberts (Avatar Chief Scientific Officer) to help better understand how the conditions of the source material in the anaerobic digester affect outcomes. Current experiments being conducted are:

 

1) determination of the optimal total solids and volatile solids content in the source material (essential for microbial growth);

 

2) identification of which microbes are essential for digestion/biogas production (which would allow for microbial inoculation of new systems to optimize operations);

 

3) evaluating the effect of temperature on microbial growth and function (essential for introducing our technology into new markets, e.g. waste water treatment operations).

 

These programs are expanding our knowledge of how the anaerobic digestion process works so that we can improve the process and exprand our marketing potential.

 

 

Academic Institution Collaborations

 

Avatar Energy is actively looking for opportunities to access new ideas on anaerobic digester design and function. In addition to ongoing corporate activities, Avatar Energy is looking to establish relationships with academic institutions. Currently, Avatar Energy already has a collaboration agreement with the University of Vermont and is working towards establishing relations with other Universities around North America (e.g. University of British Columbia, and University of Nevada Reno). Institutional collaborations bring a number of advantages to Avatar:

 

1) access to new ideas/concepts:

 

2) access to funding sources not readily available to commercial operations;

 

3) validation of the technology in academic publications which can serve to expand marketing opportunities;

 

4) access to interns who can help out with ongoing R&D activities.

 

 

Avatar Manufacturing Facility

 

Avatar Energy is in the process of opening a manufacturing facility in Nevada that will be the exclusive producer of high-quality fiberglass hull components as well as other components for the Avatar Energy anaerobic digester. The Avatar Nevada facilities will be an approximately 150,000 square foot state of the art manufacturing facility in Northern Nevada to produce digester components. In addition to manufacturing activities, the Avatar Nevada facility will house engineering group as well as Research and Development (R&D) functions.