Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1. Introduction
1.1 What is biogas?
1.2 Composition of biogas
1.3 Calorific value of biogas
1.4 What can biogas do?
1.5 Why do we need biogas?
3. Important Definitions…
3.1 Anaerobic digestion (degradation)
3.2 Methanogenesis
3.3 Biomethanation
3.4 Organic Matter
4. History of Biogas
7. Biogas Production
7.1 Compounds that can produce biogas
7.2 Raw materials suitable for biomethanation
7.3 Degradability of organic compounds
9. Utilization of Biogas
9.1 Major uses of biogas
9.1.1 Biogas for cooking
9.1.2 Biogas for lighting
9.1.3 Biogas for engines
9.2 Treatment of biogas
9.3 Storage of biogas
References
1. Introduction
Composition of biogas
In addition to above gases N2, CO, O2, and H2 slight concentrations occasionally
present in biogas.
Biogas is often named according to its origin. Biogas is named as landfill gas when
they originate from landfill sites and named as sewage gas when they originate from
sewage sludge.
The calorific value of pure methane is 36000kJ/m3. Each 10% of methane can
change the calorific value by 3600kJ/m3. For example, calorific value of biogas
containing of 70% of methane is 25200kJ/m3. The actual calorific value of biogas is a
function of its methane percentage, pressure and temperature. The actual values are
very important parameter for the performance of the engines, which are running on
biogas.
Energy is very important for the development of a country. With the development, the
demand for energy is also increasing. And also increase of population makes high
demand on energy. Therefore, we have to spend lot of money for importing the
petroleum since Sri Lanka do not have fossil fuel. Although we use biomass for
major energy source, lots of petroleum fuels are needed for industries and to
generate electricity. The energy sources and their contribution and the sectors of
energy usage and their percentages are given below.
Almost all the biomass energy is used for household purposes, especially cooking.
The limited amount of biomass is used for industries such as bricks & tile, tea,
rubber, coconut, etc. Use of biomass as an energy source is compelled to increase
deforestation. Therefore, use of biogas as an energy source for household purposes
reduce the deforestation of the country.
In year 2000, cost of petroleum imports was Rs 67187 million and it is considerably
high when compared with national income. Considerable amount of petroleum
(basically LP gas) is also used for cooking and it can be replaced by biogas. As such
the use of biogas save the national income, which is needed to import petroleum
fuels.
Methane is a green house gas by which increase the global temperature 25 times
more than carbon dioxides does. As such production of methane is not
environmentally friendly and it can cause to increase global temperature. The
estimated anthropogenic green house effect is 15% from methane and 60% from
carbon dioxide. The atmospheric methane concentration is increasing at a rate of
0.8-1.0 % per year. The almost all methane emissions are from low land paddy
fields, ruminant excreta and landfill sites. Ruminant excreta naturally produce
methane and it increases the methane concentration in the atmosphere. But if we
can produce methane from animal excreta in control condition and it can be used for
energy purposes. Then methane emission to atmosphere is reduced and decreases
the global worming. Lowland paddy cultivation is also one reason to increase
methane emission to atmosphere. It has been found that emission of methane from
paddy cultivation varies from 20-150Tg per year. And also researches showed that
methane emission from paddy fields is higher after harvesting due to degrading of
straw at the field. Therefore, if we can use straw for biogas production methane
emission can be reduced and useful energy could be generated. In the same way,
the organic wastes, which are a large part of land filling, can be used for biogas
production and it will also reduce the emission of methane to the atmosphere.
Conventional energies such as petroleum, coal and LP gases are not unlimited. The
estimated recovable years for petroleum, coal and gases are 43, 232 & 65 years
respectively. Therefore, it is beneficial to find out good sources of renewable
energies for our requirements. In considering Sri Lanka almost all hydropower
capabilities has already been used and wind and biomass energy sources, as
renewable energy is a good option.
The biogas production basically depends on the availability of substrates that can go
through anaerobic digestion. Since Sri Lanka is an agricultural country there are so
many good sources of substrates.
The total availability of solid wastes in Sri Lanka is about 2425MT/day (Ministry of
environment, 1996). The production rate may vary with population growth rate and
economic changes. As a guide value, waste production in low-income countries is
0.4kg/person/day; middle-income countries 0.5-0.9kg/person/day and industrialized
countries 0.7-1.8kg/person/day.
The amount of organic wastes that can be obtained from municipal solid wastes in
Sri Lanka is about 1940T/day (if organic fraction of MSW is 0.8). The energy
potential that could be generated from MSW through biogas production is 101.5MW
of electricity equivalent.
with a 30 days retention time from a conventional Indian type digester. The methane
content is observed as 58%.
2.5 Abattoirs
Abattoirs produce a variety of wastes such as blood, soft offal, meat, tallow, bone
meal, etc., and liquid effluents at cleaning operations. These fractions could also be
used but potential is not exactly known.
Potential energy generation from rice straw is about 64MW electricity equivalent (use
of 100% of straw).
3. Important Definitions…
3.2 Methanogenesis
Methanogenesis is a biological process by which organic matter is transformed into
methane by microorganisms in the absence of air.
3.3 Biomethanation
When Methanogenesis process is housed in a reactor to create a technological
process, it is known as biomethanation.
4. History of Biogas
Anecdotal (Unpublished) evidence indicates that biogas was used for heating bath
water in Persia during the 16th Century BC.
Benjamin Franklin described as early as 1764 that he was able to light a large
surface of shallow muddy late in New Jersy.
Alexander Volta was the first researcher describing the formation of inflammable
gases in (low temperature) marshes and lake sediments scientifically. His paper
was published in Italy in 1776. The importance of these findings was fully
recognized by the scientific community and his letters were translated into German
after two years (1778). Therefore, Volta is considered as the inventor of biogas.
In 1875, Popoff found that river sediments could produce biogas at temperature as
low as 6°C and with increasing of temperature up to 50°C the gas production was
stimulated. He also observed that the composition of biogas did not change with
temperature.
The first digestion plant was built at leper colony in Bombay, India in 1859.
Gayon, a pupil of Pasteur, recoded a success in his experiments with animal manure
in 1883-84. In same period, Louis Pasteur concluded that anaerobic manure
fermentation might supply gas for heating and illumination.
Based on the findings that higher temperatures stimulate the biogas formation,
heating systems were developed to increase the digester temperature. In between
1914 and 1921, Imhoff and Blunk took patents for heating devices (heat exchangers)
to increase the temperature in the digester.
The first full scale agricultural biogas installation developed in 1938 by Isman and
Descellion in Algeria.
Towards the end of the Second World War when the fuel was limited, anaerobic
digestion of liquid manure and sewage sludge became quite popular
France, Germany are operating biogas plants, specially large size plants, with higher
technical standard mainly on sewage works. Half of gas was utilized to run engines.
upgrading and efficient – utilization in gas engines to produced electricity and fuel
vehicles.
In the field of biogas production (anaerobic digestion) from wastes the India and
China are recognized as world leaders. The period from 1973 – 1985 showed the
rapid and worldwide development of simple AD systems for methane production as
an energy source. In 1973, India, China and South East Asia rapidly and massively
expended their AD units to answer their increased energy cost. The both countries
have large number of small size biogas digesters for supplying the energy needs in
especially rural people.
6.1.2 Temperature
Methane is formed in nature over a wide range of temperatures. Three different
temperature varies are distinguished
In low temperatures gas production rate as well as the amount of gas production is
low and in high temperatures biogas production is high. In most cases, measophilic
temperature range is used. The measophilic digesters could be converted to
thermophilic or vise versa.
6.1.3 pH
A pH value between 6.5 and 7.7 has been found to be optimum for the process.
Methanogenesis beyond the range of 6.5 – 8.0 pH has been found to be less yield of
biogas
C/N ratio
Nitrogen is essential for cell growth and it can controls the pH by releasing the NH 3
from Nitrogenous compounds.
The optimum range of C/N ration for methane production is 25:1 to 30:1. This shows
that bacteria consume carbon 25 to 30 times faster than Nitrogen. Therefore,
optimum ratio of C/N is essential for smooth operation of digester. The C/N ratios of
important feeds stocks are given in the following table.
The different substrates can be mixed together to achieve the proper C/N ratio for
anaerobic digestion. If we have various raw materials, they can be mixed up to get
desired C/N ratio. Following example clearly show the method of calculating
required amount of nitrogen sources to get desired C/N ratio of law nitrogen raw
materials.
Example: Calculate the quantity of urea (46% of N) required to make the 1000kg
of rice straw for biogas digester with C/N, 30:1.
Rice straw contains carbon, 42% and nitrogen, 0.63%. The urea (CO(NH 2)2)
contains nitrogen, 46% and carbon, 20%. Required amount of urea can be
calculated as follows.
42 20
(Amount of C in Straw) ×1000 + (Amount of C in Urea) ×x
30 100 100
(Required C/N ratio) =
1 0.63 46
(Amount of N in Straw) ×1000 + (Amount of N in Urea) ×x
100 100
6.1.5 Micronutrients
In addition to nitrogen, the phosphorous is also essential for the better growth of
microorganisms. The ratio of C:P of 100-200 is said to be optimum. Micronutrients
such as Nickel (100 nM) Cobalt (50nM) and Molybdenum (50 nM) are important.
Molybdenum may enhance the joint effect of Nickel and Cobolt. Iron (2nm) and
Copper (4nm) are necessary for enhancing the performance of the digestion
process.
Use of long retention time would result inefficient use of digestion capacity. The
substrates for microorganisms are not sufficient and their growth is slow down.
Short retention time is not sufficient for microorganisms to degrade the whole
substrate. The retention time may very depending on the composition of the
substrate. For example, cellulose material required 10 days for digestion and for
lignocellulose material is non degradable even at 30 days. In most cases 30-40
days of retention time is suitable.
Total solid content of the substrate is very important in biogas production. The
optimal total solid level for biogas production was observed as 10%. But
considerable gas production can be obtained up to 30% of solid level. The increase
of solid level leads to reduce the gas production. To obtained desirable amount of
biogas production from higher total solid levels, long duration of retention times
should be practiced.
When we are using animal excreta (specially cow dung) and green refuse, 1:1 ratio
of water to substrate could be practiced as a general value. Approximate total solid
contents of several substrates are given below.
7. Biogas Production
1. Agricultural wastes: Plant residues (straws, husks, cobs, hulls, etc) and
Animal byproducts (horse, cattle, goat, sheep, pig, poultry, etc)
2. Agro industrial wastes (Bagasses, coir mill wastes, etc)
3. Forestry and forest product industries (leaves, twigs, sawdust,
wood wastes)
4. Energy crops: Agricultural crops and aquatic weeds
(Salvinia, Water Hyacinth)
cipal Bio waste: Municipal solid waste, sewage sludge sewage including industrial effluent
6. Other wastes such as petrochemical, organic chemical, leather, soap,
etc.
7. Food industrial wastes (milk, fruit, vegetable processing)
Compound Duration
Lignin Hardly Noticeable
Cellulose Several weeks
Hemi cellulose
Fat A few days
Proteins
Low molecular sugars
Volatile Fatty Acids A few hours
Alcohols
Table 05: Degradability of different compounds
8.1.1 Digester
The digester is a tank, normally circular in shape and it is normally constructed
underground. The digester should be entirely air light to prevent the entering of
oxygen to the digester and leaving out of biogas produced from the digester. It also
should be waterproof. The digester should meet followings also;
8.1.2 Gasholder
There are two types of gasholders namely fixed dome type and floating dome type.
In fixed dome type, the biogas accumulates in the dome over the digester slurry.
The slurry in the digester serves as a reversible displacement medium. The biogas
accumulating in the dome pushes out a portion of the slurry into a higher auxiliary
compartment. The digester slurry floor back into the dome by gravity as the biogas
is consumed. In floating done type, the inverted tank is placed over the digester tank
and the gas released from the digester tank accumulates in the inverted tank over
the slurry.
If the raw material (waste material) contains total solids more than 10%, the
system is referred as dry batch system. The researches have shown that total
solid up to 32% could be used for dry batch fermentation. In batch systems,
the biogas production is initially increasing and after some period, (depending
on the feeding material) the production will be reduced. Therefore, uniform
gas production cannot be achieved using this system.
A fixed amount of waste is charge into the biogas plant daily and gas
production from its digester is constant and equal to gas produced from the
daily charge. The daily effluent from the digester is equal to daily feed
material.
9. Utilization of Biogas
Pure methane burns in a mixture of 91% air and 9% methane. The biogas, however,
needs approximately 93% air to burn completely. For this reason, the normal LPG
burners used commonly in the houses are not fit for biogas. Special burners with
bigger holes have been designed for use biogas as fuel. The bigger holes enable to
draw higher percentages of air from the atmosphere, needed for efficient burning of
the biogas with the correct air an biogas mixture, the flame temperature can reach as
high as 8000C. Since the pressure of the biogas is normally low (less than 35cm)
the bigger holes is essential to provide sufficient amount of gas to the burning point.
The biogas burner should be designed to work at 7-10cm of water column. Generally
about 0.25-0.35m3 of biogas is required for cooking for a person per day.
To ensure that the flame does not “lift off”, the ratio of the total area of burner parts to
the area of the injector orifice should be between 80 and 200:1.
In the diesel engines the engine is usually started with pure diesel fuel and the
biogas increased gradually until it comprises around 20% of fuel intake with 80%
biogas, engine performance is good and 20% more hose power is delivered the with
diesel alone. Approximately 0.43m3 of biogas is required for running a one-horse
power engine for hour. Electricity also could be produced using biogas. Normally
0.75 m3 of Biogas is required to produce 1kwh
By removing the H2O in the biogas, quality of flames both burners and lamps could
be improved. Hydrogen sulfide and water removed is essential when biogas is used
in engines. Removing H2S and water could prevent damaging to the engines by
corrosion. CO2 removal is employed when a high quality gas is required. This can
be the case when the biogas is to be used as a substitute for natural gas or when
sensitive equipment is used.
H2S removal using iron oxide pellets is one method. In this technique, in which the
gas is led through a box of pellets, the iron oxide pellets reacts with the H 2S in the
biogas according to the following reaction
Normally two boxes of pellets are installed in the gas line; one box is loaded whereas
the other is regenerated. When the iron pellets are completely covered with sulfide,
the pellets are replaced. H2S could be removed by absorption of H 2S in water or
organic solvents. High consumption of water limits the use of this method. Chemical
absorption with a diluted sodium hydroxide and iron chloride solutions are also
employed to remove the H2S. By removing the CO2, biogas energy volume of biogas
could be increased. And petrol and diesel engines works properly if the CH4 in the
biogas more than 90-95%. Presence of CO2 in the biogas when biogas is used as
fuel for vehicles, lower the output power, take up space in the storage cylinders and
freezing at valves are major problems. Therefore, all or most of CO2 should be
removed when biogas is used for vehicles or engines.
The biogas plants are designed based on type of waste material available for
digestion and the quantity of gas required. The gas requirements for various
purposes are given below.
Based on the above information such as waste material available, their gas
productions rate, retention time, gas requirement for cooking, lighting etc, the biogas
digesters could be designed. In the case of straw, one kilogram of straw
approximately can produce 1L of biogas per day but this may vary with the retention
time.
According to the number of animals that farmer having, the gas production from the
wastes, which is produced by excreta of the animals, could be calculated. And also
number of family members and their gas requirement decide the total gas
requirement for the family.
Now it is easy to find out which is less, total amount of gas produced form available
quantity of waste or the quantity of gas required per day. Then, it can be found the
limiting parameter for determining the volume the digester. That means, if gas
consumption is less than gas production, the volume of digester will be decided by
the amount of gas consumption. If the gas production is less than gas consumption,
the volume of gas digester will be decided by the gas production. Which is less, it will
decide the digester size (volume).
Example: Farmer having six members is going to construct a biogas unit. He has
five cows and two buffaloes. Design a biogas unit for the farmer. The biogas unit
should be able to provide gas for cooking for the family and for lighting of two lamps
for 2 hours.
Gas production:
No. Of animals are seven (five cows, two buffaloes)
Amount of excreta (cow dung) per day is 70 Kg.
Total gas production is 2.52 m3/day (70 x 0.036)
Gas consumption:
For cooking, the gas requirement is (0.25 x 6) 1.5 m3
The gas requirement for lighting two lamps for three hrs is (0.15 x 2 x 2) 0.6m3
Total gas consumption is 2.1 m3 /day
The digester could be designed based on the gas production as well as gas
consumption. But the size of the digester would be large when digester is designed
in considering the gas production and hence the cost of construction is high. When
the digester is designed based on gas consumption, the size of the digester would
be small compared to the digester built based on gas production. Since the gas
consumption is less than gas production, the digester is designed based on gas
consumption. Hence, the cost of construction would be less and it is the suitable
size. Therefore, the design of the digester should be done based on, gas
consumption in this case.
Normally, before feed the raw material to the digester the raw materials should be
mixed with water to make the desired level of total solids in the raw materials. The
amount of total solids (TS) in the raw materials for better anaerobic digester and
biogas production is about 10%. That mean, the 90% of water is required for
digestion. Researches now have shown considerable biogas production even at
30% of total solid concentrations. However, in the design of a biogas unit, TS
concentration should be considered as 10%.
Normally, cow dung has about 14 – 25 % of TS. By mixing cow dung with water at
1:1 ratio, the desired TS concentration can be achieved. Therefore, the amount of
water that has to be applied is 60kg.
The weight of total feeding material is about 120 Kg. (60kg cow dung + 60kg of
water).
Now it has to be calculated the volume of the digester. If the density of cow dung
water mixture digester is about 1080kg/m3 the volume of the mixture is about 0.111
m3 (120/1080). This amount of mixture of raw materials can produce gas for one-
day requirement for the family. The retention time for the cow dung in tropical
condition is about 40 days.
in a digester (vessel) operated a continuous way. It means, the cow dung water
mixture is in the digester and produce gas for about 40 days.
Normally, volume of the dome (basically this space is for storage of gas) is about ¼
of the volume of the feeding material. Therefore total volume is 5.55m3
3
(4.44/4+4.444=5.55m ).
Actual volume should be more than 10% of the theoretical volume. Therefore actual
volume of the digester would be about (5.55 x 10/100 + 5.55) = 6.105) 6.0m3.
Therefore, the total volume of the digester is about 6m3. Using following simple
equations, the dimensions of the digester can be found.
capacity 6
(A) Diameter of the digester = 3 =3 3 = 2.38 m
0.447 0.447
diameter 2.38
(B) Height of the dome = = = 0.47 m
5 5
diameter
(C) Height of the cylindrical part = x 2 = 0.95 m
5
diameter
(D) Depth of bottom = = 0.29 m
8
• The use of renewable energy reduces the CO2 emission through a reduction
of the demand for fossil fuel.
• At the same time, the process can diminish uncontrolled methane generation
by capturing methane as biogas.
Smaller agricultural biogas plants reduce the use of forest resources for
household energy purposes and thus slow down deforestation, soil degradation,
and resulting natural catastrophes (disasters) like flooding or desertification.
Nitrous Oxide has high global worming potential. It has found the anaerobic
digestion reduce the Nitrous oxide emissions also.
8. Biogas composition and emissions after burning in comparison with other fuels
are given in the following table and it shows that biogas has clear emissions after
burning.
References
Ajith de alwis (2001).Study on the potential of biogas in Sri Lanka. ITDG South Asia.
Anonymous, (2000). Annual report, central Bank of Sri Lanka.
Anonymous, (1998). National Environmental action plan 1998 – 2001. Ministry of forestry &
Environment, Sampathpaya, Baththaramulla, Sri Lanka.
Bardiya, N., Somayaji, P. & Knanna,S. (196). Bio methanation of Banana peel and
pineapple waste. Bioresource Technology,58, 73-76.
Mathur,A.N. and Rathore, N.S. (1992). Biogas management and utilization, Himanshu
publications,5k51,Ram singh K1 Badi, Sector 11, Udaipur(Rajasthan).