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Biogas Technology
1.1 Introduction
Biogas Technology has a very significant role to play in integrated agricultural
operations, rural sanitation, large-scale dairy farms & sewage disposal etc. It is
estimated that cattle dung, when passed through a Biogas unit, yields 30-40% more
net energy and about 35-45% more Nitrogen in manure as compared with that
obtained by burning dung cakes and ordinarily prepared compost, respectively.
Besides, from a biogas plant both the products are obtained. There are about 250
million bovine (cattle and buffalo) population in India and one biogas unit for small
family requires about 3-5 cattle heads, thus about 10 million family size plants fed on
cattle and buffalo dung can be installed.
1.2 Process Description
Biogas generation is a process widely occurring in nature and can be described as a
biological process in which biomass or organic matter, in the absence of Oxygen, is
converted into Methane and Carbon dioxide. It is characterized by low nutrient
requirement, and high degree of waste stabilization process where biogas is one of
the two useful products; the other being enriched organic manure in the form of
digested slurry. It is essentially a three stage process involving following reactions:
1) Hydrolysis 2) Acid formation 3) Methane generation.
For all practical purposes the first two steps are often defined as a single stage, i.e.
hydrolysis and acid formation stages are grouped as acid formation stage. Micro-
organisms taking part in this phase are termed as acid formers. As a group, these
organisms are rapidly growing and are not much dependent upon surroundings.
Products of first two stages serve as the raw material for the third stage where organic
acids are utilized as carbon source by Methane forming micro-organisms, which are
also known as Methanogens. These Methanogens are more susceptible to their
surroundings. The tolerated pH range is 6.8 to 7.5 with optimum 7.0. Any departure
from this range is inhibitory. Atmospheric Oxygen is extremely toxic for methanogens,
as they are strict anaerobes.
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1.3 Parameters Affecting Anaerobic Digestion
There are several parameters which affect the anaerobic digestion / gas yields and
they can be divided into two parts:
1.3.1 Environmental Factors :
There are a few environmental factors which limit the reactions if they differ
significantly from their optimum levels. Factors of most interest are s (a) temperature,
(b) pH and (c) nutrient contents of the raw materials,
(a) Temperature
It is a factor which affects most small & medium size biogas installations in developing
countries. There are three zones of temperature in which biogas is produced by
anaerobic fermentation of organic matter, viz.: 1) Mesophillic, 2) Thermophillic and 3)
Psycrophillic zones. The optimum temperature of digester slurry in Mesophillic zone is
35oC, 55oC in Thermophillic zone and 10oC in Psycrophillic zone.
(b) pH
The pH range suitable for gas production is rather narrow i.e. 6.6 to 7.5. Below 6.2 it
becomes toxic.
(c) Nutrient Concentration
Optimum C/N ratio is in the range of 25 to 30:1. In the case of cattle dung the problem
of nutrient concentration does not exist as C/N ratio is usually around 25:1.
1.3.2 Operational Factors
Operational factors contributing to the gas production process are: (a) retention time
(RT) - also referred as detention or residence time, (b) slurry concentration and (c)
mixing.
(a) Hydraulic Retention Time (HRT)
The number of days the feed material is required to remain in the digester to begin
gas production – is the most important factor in determining the volume of the digester
which in turn determines the cost of the plant; the larger the retention period, higher
the construction cost.
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(b) Slurry Concentration
The optimum level for cattle dung slurry in the range of 8 to 10% and any variations
from this result in lower gas output.
(c) Mixing & Stirring
Proper mixing of manure to form an homogenous slurry before it is fed in the digester,
is an essential operation for better efficiency of biogas systems; whereas proper
stirring of digester slurry ensures repeated contact of microbes with substrate and
results in the utilization of total contents of the digesters.
3.4 Constituents
Methane 60.0%
Carbon-dioxide 38.0%
Nitrogen 0.8%
Hydrogen 0.7%
Carbon-monoxide 0.2%
Oxygen 0.1%
Hydrogen Sulphide 0.2%
The calorific value of methane is 35.16 MJ / m3 and that of the above mixture is about
19.73 MJ/ m3. However, the bio-gas gives a useful heat of 12.56 MJ/m3.
1.4. Main Features of the Bio-Gas Plant
On the basis of the gas holder the present bio-gas plants are classified mainly into two
groups -fixed dome type or floating drum type. Both the type of plants have the
following functional components:
(i) Digester : This is the fermentation tank and is built partially or fully underground. It
is generally cylindrical in shape and made up of bricks and cement mortars. It holds
the slurry within it for the period of digestion for which it is designed.
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(ii) Gas holder: This component is meant for holding the gas after it leaves the
digester. It may be a floating drum or a fixed dome on the basis of which the plants
are broadly classified. The gas connection is taken from the top of this holder to the
gas burners or for any other purposes by suitable pipelines. The floating gas holder is
made up of mild steel sheets and angle iron and is required to exert pressure of 10
cms of water in the gas dome masonry and exert a pressure upto 1m of water column
on the gas.
(iii) Slurry mixing tank: This is a tank in which the dung is mixed with water and fed
to the digester through an inlet pipe.
(iv) Outlet tank and slurry pit: An outlet tank is usually provided in a fixed dome type
of plant from where slurry in directly taken to the field or to a slurry pit. In case of a
floating drum plant, the slurry is taken to a pit where it can be dried or taken to the field
for direct applications.
1.5 Size Selection of Rural Household Biogas Plants
Size of the rural household biogas plant to be installed should be selected on the basis
of gas requirement and the livestock manure availability with the beneficiaries.
Size No Plant Daily dung Approximate No. of family
capacity m3 Required (kg) No. of cattle members
1 1 25 2–3 3-4
2 2 50 4–6 5-8
3 3 75 7–9 9 - 12
4 4 100 10 – 12 13 - 17
5 6 150 12 – 20 18 - 25
1.6 Popular Designs of Biogas Plant Models
There are three popular Indian designs of biogas plants namely: KVIC, Janata and
Deenbandhu Biogas plants. For construction of KVIC & Janata model plants - Indian
Standard IS:9478-1986 released by Bureau of Indian Standards should be followed.
Brief description of the three models is given below.
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(a) KVIC Plant
Schematic View of KVIC Biogas Plant
Advantages of Moveable Drum:
(i) Constant gas Pressure.
(ii) Minimum gas leakage problem.
(iii) Higher gas production
(iv) Scum problem is minimum.
(v) Pressure is naturally equalizes.
(vi) No danger of mixing between biogas and external air. Hence no danger of explosion.
Disadvantages of Movable Drum Type:
(i) Higher cost
(ii) Higher maintenance cost.
(iii) The outlet pipe should be flexibale. It requires regular attention.
(iv) Heat is lost through gas holder.
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(b) Janata Plant
(c) Deenbandhu Plant
1.7 Bio-gas Application and Appliances
(i) Dual Fuel Engines: This is a recent appliance where certain modification of air
intake system helps carburation of bio-gas to run the diesel engines. It is well known
that diesel engine has wide application in rural areas from irrigation to any stationary
operations and these engines can be converted to dual fuel ones. This dual fuel engine
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is in a position to make use of about 70% bio-gas and 30% diesel. The economy of
running dual fuel engine by bio-gas is undisputable but it has certain operational
difficulties. The main problem is that while bio-gas plants are located near the house,
the running of the diesel pumpsets are required in the fields. As such it is impractical
and technically unsound to provide long gas pipes to connect the gas plant with the
diesel engines in the field. Another aspect that prohibits the use of bio-gas in diesel
engine is that it requires larger gas plants at least 8-10 cum, so as to enable a 1ow 3
HP diesel engine to run for 4-5 hours a day. And often the users prefer the sizes of 2-
4 cum gas plants as number of cattles are not many. However, considering large bio-
gas plants hold the key to economical operation of dual fuel engines, in future one may
see its wide spread application when many such gas plants come into existence.
(ii) Refrigerations, Incubators and Water Boilers : There are other applications of
bio-gas such as refrigerators, incubators and water boiler, Experimentation in this
regard has been going on in some R & D centres whose results are awaited before
they become common application items.
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