Our History

Stephen Dvorak, PE, designed DVO’s patented digester in 1999, and built the first of this unique, new design in 2001. DVO has since installed over 170 digesters at more than 130 sites in 24 states within the United States (more in other countries). Every year we continue to build new digesters for farmers, investors, and municipalities.

The first digesters were put in as a response to Wisconsin changing its laws affecting dairy farmers. Wisconsin has long been one of the largest dairy producing states, and the laws changed because of odors from increasingly larger dairies and manure storage. Stephen Dvorak had a background in digesters at a meat-packing plant, so he developed a concept for dairies that sought to improve on that model.

The original design was developed based on tests of area concrete lagoons. These lagoons were agitated and mixed, which aided the original DVO concept and engineering development. The first installation was in 2001, and it is still running today.

Since then, the experts at DVO have gained broad experience, which they’ve put to work by improving its digesters. Changes to the heating and mixing systems has ensured complete digestion. DVO also developed a design that separates the acid chamber from the methanogenic chamber, so they’re much easier to clean. This allows continuous operation with no need to ever shut down for cleaning. This makes the DVO system much more efficient and productive.

Today, the company is growing its international footprint, with installations in 10 countries outside the United States. And the number of installations grows almost every month.