BIOGAS PLANT

Two Outputs of the Plant:

 Biogas
 Organic Fertilizer

100 Kg of food waste = 9 – 10 cu.m. of biogas

That is, 1 ton of food waste = 80 – 90 cu.m. of biogas

1 cu.m. of biogas = 1/4th of LPG

That is, 80 cu.m. of biogas = 20 Kg LPG

Waste per person, per day = 200 gm =0.2 Kg

Waste generated per day for 1000 persons = 200 Kg

Organic Fertilizer generated:

 Liquid – 600-700 Litres

OR
 Sludge cake – 60-100 Kg (Water content can be recycled and used in the biogas plant
for making a sludge of the food waste or it can be used for irrigation or watering
plants) The water is separated out by a sieve.

The fertilizer generated is ready to use immediately.

30 days commissioning

After 30 days:

 1st week – 25% waste to be put into the biogas plant

 2nd week – 60% waste to be put into the biogas plant
 3rd week – 100% waste to be put into the biogas plant

If the Biogas plant is not fed for 3-4 months, there is no problem because the microbes can
survive that long without feed.

The Biogas generation process is divided into three sub-processes:

 Hydrolysis: In this process, the waste is converted into a slurry (by adding water and
mixing in the mixer). Water that is added is heated to speed up the process. Water
can be heated using Solar panels or any other method.
 Acidogenesis: This process takes place in the first digester, where the slurry is broken
down to generate acetate (acetic acid).
  Methanogenesis: The acetate is then fed to the second digester, where the microbes
act upon the acetate to generate methane gas.

In most biogas plants, a single digester is used. The disadvantage of a single digester is that
the acidogenesis process makes the environment inside the digester very acidic. However,
the microbes working in the methanogenesis process require a neutral environment and
cannot work in an acidic environment. This causes the biogas plant to stop functioning (no
producing any gas).

The biogas generated can be stored in a storage balloon and then fed to the point of usage.
The capacity of the balloon depends on the amount of gas storage required.

The total power consumption of the 1-ton biogas plant is 25 kW.

The area required to set up a 1-ton biogas plant is 20 m X 15 m.

The composition of Biogas is:

 Methane: 60%
 Carbon dioxide: 38%
 Hydrogen Sulphide: 2% (This is the component that produces foul smell.)

LPG has a high calorific value of 12,000 Kcal/Kg, while biogas has a calorific value of 6000
Kcal/Kg. Therefore, heat efficiency of LPG is greater than biogas. This means that a higher
quantity of biogas needs to be used to produce the same amount of heat produced by a
small quantity of LPG.

A biogas plant is fed by wet waste. Even, the wet waste needs to further be segregated to
remove things like non-veg waste, citrus fruits, chillies, coconut etc.