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Case study of biogas production from various feedstocks

Experiment Findings · January 2018

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Eco. Env. & Cons. 24 (4) : 2018; pp. (1871-1876)
Copyright@ EM International
ISSN 0971–765X

Case study of biogas production from various

feedstocks
Shivani1 and Bashir Misbah2*

1
Department of Civil engineering, Lovely Professional University 2Department of Environment
Engineering, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara 144 411, Punjab, India

(Received 28 April, 2018; accepted 10 June, 2018)

ABSTRACT
Waste is one of the foremost and environmental anxieties in most of evolving countries. In rapidly developing
world problems and issues of waste are increasing day by day. The objective of this paper is to give the
insight details of different wastes which can help in the production of biogas. It has been perceived from
past few researches that biogas production can be increased efficiently. This paper gives an overview about
the biogas production by using different substrates and methods to overcome from the problem of pollution
caused by waste. Biogas is generated by the bioconversion of treated and untreated biomass under solid
state fermentation. Biogas does not have limitations nor does it require advanced technology for producing
energy. An attempt is made to compare the biogas formation from different wastes used as a feedstock.
Most of the researches were done before using these as a feedstock so in this paper some of the results are
analyzed and discussed as biogas production is the economical as well as the easiest way to utilize the
waste and convert into energy solutions.

Key words : Biogas, Feedstock, fermentation.

Introduction erated by anaerobic digestion of various materials

There has been an enormous increase in the global
demand for energy in the recent years due to our in-
creasing demands as well as new living standards.
Supply of energy is far more less than the actual
demand. This demand supply gap indicates the
growing energy crisis in various fields such as oil
shortage, coal shortage, power shortage etc.
In India there is emerging shortage of various
non renewable resources as 65% of power genera-
tion in India is done with the help of oil, coal etc.
Hike in petrol and diesel prices is due to the exces-
sive unnecessary use. Power is used for every little
work such as cooking, heating and water supply.
There are many ways through which energy is
being produced, biogas is one of them which is gen-
such as cow dung, vegetable remains, animal re-
mains, leftover foods etc.
It is in the form of various gases like methane,
carbon dioxide, nitrogen, hydrogen, hydrogen sul-
fide, oxygen etc. produced by the fermentation of
organic matter as discussed and their values are
shown below in the table in which they are present.
Biogas can be used in different ways such as for
power production, heating, cooking gas, in vehicle
transportation etc. Various concentrations of biogas
components as discussed above are summed up in
the table given below
Environmental impacts of wastes
• Wastes produced from different industries are
dumped on fertile lands or in the water bodies

*Corresponding author’s email : shivanibhardwaj2210@gmail.com; misbahbashir121@gmail.com

1872
Table 1. Concentration of biogas contents.
Gases Approx value (%)
Methane 49-74
Carbon Dioxide 25-49
Nitrogen 0-11
Hydrogen sulphide 0.1-0.5
Oxygen 0-0.5
which cause deterioration of land and water
causing threat to the life of humans, plants, ma-
rine life.
• Some of the wastes such as pine needles or the
crop remains cause accumulation on the ground
thus creating problem for rainwater to penetrate
into the soil.
• Throwing garbage or waste into the land form-
ing the mountains of garbage cause degradation
of soil which leads to the shortage of fodder to
the animals.
• Report says that these so called garbage moun-
tains are responsible for so many birth defects in
the generations and leading to abortions.
• Garbage is being dumped into the landfills
which cause accumulation of various gases and
leads to explosions. Also there is formation of
leachate which gets mixed with fresh water
sources which degrade the quality of water
sources.
• Forest fires are taking place due to the accumu-
lation of leaves fallen from the trees. In most of
the areas of Himachal Pradesh and Uttrakhand
pine leaves which gets collected on the forest
floors are responsible for major outbreaks of
fires.
• Landfill gases are responsible for the production
of green house gases hence creating global
warming.
There is lot of issues now days from the waste
generated so we can turn them into energy solu-
tions. Various works are being done by using differ-
ent substrates which help in utilizing the waste and
producing fuel which can be used for cooking, heat-
ing etc.
Anaerobic digestion
It is a natural process that takes place in absence of
air (oxygen). It involves biochemical decomposition
of complex organic material by various biochemical
processes with release of energy rich biogas and
production of nutritious effluents.
Eco. Env. & Cons. 24 (4) : 2018
Biological processes include following:
1. Hydrolysis
2. Acidification
3. Methanogenisis
Materials and Methods
Types of substrates (Feedstock)
• Waste from dairy production
• Food industries
• Agricultural remains
• Kitchen waste
• Animal waste
• Slaughter house waste etc
Cow dung and pine needles as a substrate
Pine needles have lignocellulosic content which
help in the production of biogas. Various researched
being done by using this as a substrate. Pine needles
grinded into small pieces and mixed thoroughly
with cow dung. Further addition ofinocculumis
done and digestion is being carried out for specific
time duration under certain conditions. Most of the
result shows the production of biogas more than the
conventitional type of system of producing biogas.
Sample from the fermentation bucket is analyzed
for different parameters such as pH, TS, VS, BOD,
COD, temperature etc. and the results are com-
pared. It is found out that in most of the cases BOD
and COD gets reduced after digestion.
It has been concluded that pH during the first
stage i.e. acidification gets reduced as there is the
formation of volatile fatty acids. Concentration of
acids gets increased at that time therefore least
amount of biogas is produced. As the methanogenic
bacteria grows rapidly pH rises which help in con-
version of VFA into biogas.
Alkalinity helps in controlling the pH fluctua-
tions. The alkalinity of untreated substrate is found
to be less as compared to the treated one. Also the
BOD and COD gets reduced after digestion as
stated in the experiments done. Also the tempera-
ture inside and outside the digester varies as the
temperature inside is almost higher than the tem-
perature outside.
Biogas production from this combination of pine
needles and cow dung is more as compared to con-
ventional type of system.
Organic Biomass material as substrate
By using material such as ground oak, vermin com-
SHIVANI AND MISBAH 1873

Fig. 1. Comparison of different parameters Source-Use of

pine needle as substrate in biogas production by
Ruchi Devi et al, in Digester 1(cow dung) and Di-
gester 2 (cow dung and pine needles) respectively.

post of pine needles, pine needles treated with cow

urine, pine needles treated with NaOH, lime,
ureandTrichoderma spp.,
Pseudomonas spp. in a batch fermentation bucket
of 4 litre approx. under mesophilic conditions and
are analyzed for the parameters TS, VS, pH etc. It
has been observed that all the parameters of all the
combinations are reduced. pH value of ground oak
is observed to change rapidly than other substrates.
Also the value of alkalinity is lower for oak and
higher for pine.
Biogas production for vermin compost pine is
observed to be higher than for the pine treated with
cow urine.
Food waste as substrate
In colleges and universities there is lot of food wast-
age so Mohan and Jagadeesan, (2013), conducted
study by using solid and liquid food waste of
weight 15kg from a institute is collected to figure
out the production of biogas by using UASB reactor
of capacity 1000 mL. The decomposition of material

Table 2. Parameters before and after biogas production

from food waste.
Source- Mohan and Jagadeesan (2013) Production of
biogas from food waste. It is also found out that UASB
reactor can treat food efficiently.
pH 8.2 7.1
T. Alkalinity mg/L 510 235
T. Acidity mg/L 628 315
COD mg/L 24000 4210
BOD5 mg/L 8120 3401
Chloride mg/L 849 425
Sulphate mg/L 3209 1604
1874 Eco. Env. & Cons. 24 (4) : 2018

is performed for 90 days after adding 100 mL of Biogas production from kitchen wet waste
sludge into it and concluded that there is consider-
Navjot Riar et al. (2013), using kitchen wet waste
able decrease in the value of pH, alkalinity, COD,
such as Tea bags, Turnip, Rotten tomato, Potato
BOD, acidity as discussed in table below. Also it is
Waste Spinach, Onion, Pea peels, Bread, Pumpkin,
observed from the experiment that organic acids are
Cheese, Butter, Rotten Apples, Eggs, banana peels,
successfully converted into useful compounds. Fol-
Paper, Mushrooms, Cooked meat, Rice in a 20 liter
lowing table shows the fall in values of parameters
container and by using PVC fittings conducted an
analyzed (Mohan and Jagadeesan, 2013).
experiment for the production of biogas. The test
Cow dung and rice husk as substrate was conducted for 21 days and found out that acid
concentration affects the production of biogas
This apparatus of experimentation consist of
greatly. It affects the pH also as it also get decreased
Buckner type of glass of capacity 500 mL for di-
when acid concentration increase and vice versa. It
gester which is further connected to same glass of
has been concluded by her that temperature range
half its capacity containing brine solution which is
between 350C-450C is most optimum for production.
further connected to flask which is empty. 3 combi-
nations was made using 1.5 kg of cow dung and 1.5 Fruits and vegetable waste as substrate
kg of rice huskin ratio 50:50, 75:25, 0:100. Digestion
Study was done for the production of biogas and
started and when production of biogas takes place it
using sludge after digestion into the field as a fertil-
displaces brine solution into empty flask which re-
izers. Fruits and vegetables such as pumpkin, pine-
sult in showing the amount of biogas produced.
apple, spinach, orange were collected for this inves-
The first combination in the 50:50 ratio showing
tigation and dried in sun for 20 days and in oven at
the maximum production of biogas. The study
1100C for 10 hrs before use. These materials with the
shows that during intial duration of digestion the
help of mortar and wooden pestle are converted
formation of biogas is quite less and on the 31st day
into powdered form. Cow dung is also collected
of testing it shows sudden hike that is due to the
and 5 digesters were made and slurries were added
working of methanogenic bacteria. It was observed
to them by adding 1.5 liter of water into each 200gm
that after some days the production of biogas re-
sample of feedstock. The highest biogas production
duces. So it is concluded that rice husk does not
is recorded for cow dung followed by pineapple,
have potential for producing biogas at ambient tem-
orange, pumpkin and spinach as 1554cm3, 965 cm3,
perature conditions. Also it does not show any con-
612cm3, 373 cm3 and 269 cm3 respectively (Sagagi et
tribution toward biogas production (Elijah T. Iyagba
al., 2009). So it is concluded that all the substrates
et al., 2009).
are pretty good for the production of biogas.

Fig. 2. Parameters showing production, variation in pH and TS%Source- International Journal of Computational Engineer-
ing Research
SHIVANI AND MISBAH
Fig. 3. Comparative biogas production of different fruits
and vegetables.
Poultry droppings and domestic waste using silica
gel as catalyst
A laboratory scale digester is used for the produc-
tion of biogas from kitchen waste and poultry farm
waste. Comparison was done by using catalyst as
silica gel in one of the digester with the one in which
no catalyst was added. Silica gel is used due to its
property of absorbing undesirable gases such as
CO2 and also economical. It helps in enhancing the
production. Chicken droppings (160gm), kitchen
waste (160gm) and water (380gm) were fed into the
digesters. Two digesters were prepared, one in
which silica gel is used as catalyst and another in
which no catalyst is used. Biogas is produced in
both the digesters but in the digester having catalyst
shows more production with a difference of 33%.
The temperature in the digesters is between 26OC to
Fig. 4. Comparison between two set-ups and effect of
catalyst (silica gel) on biogas production. Source-
Production of biogas from anaerobic digestion of
poultry droppings and domestic waste using
catalytic effect of silica gel (J.U. Ahamed et al,
2016).
1875
33OC during the investigations.
Results
As far as the studies are concerned about the pro-
duction of biogas it is found out that the biogas pro-
duction anaerobically occurs in three steps. First of
all hydrolysis, in which all the polycompounds are
converted into mono compounds such as protein
into amino acids and peptides. Secondly anaerobic
bacteria convert the intermediates of fermenting
bacteria into acetic acid. For the production of acid
they require oxygen and carbon which they extract
from dissolved oxygen and organic matter. Also
they start reducing compounds into their atomic
forms such as alcohols, amino acids etc. Third and
the last step of anaerobic digestion involve methane
formation by utilizing hydrogen, acetic acid to form
methane and carbon dioxide.
Fig. 5. Source -Experimental and kinetic study of food
waste - The effect of pH on biogas production.
• pH plays vital role in the production of biogas,
most favorable range for biogas production of
pH is 6.5-7.5.
1. It is observed that temperature should be in me-
sophilic range so that growth of bacteria should
take place properly.
2. More percentage of reduction in Volatile solid
shows more generation of biogas.
3. BOD and COD values reduce with time. As the
biogas production start increasing the organic
matter starts to decompose which help in reduc-
tion of pH.
4. Silica is being used as a catalyst due to its prop-
erties of enhancing the reaction. It is also cheap
and available easily so it can be used for the bio-
conversion process.
 1876
Discussion
From all the studies done regarding biogas produc-
tion it has been observed that we can use waste for
the production of biogas. The processes used are
economical and middle class family can easily use
these processes. As the waste collection process re-
quire so much involvement of money in the collec-
tion, transportation of waste. So, it will help in re-
ducing the wastage of time, money and energy in-
volved in this process and result in producing more
energy. It helps in controlling the pollution in many
ways. In this paper some substrates are discussed
which are waste and has no proper utilization than
biogas production. So it is recommended to use
such type of waste in converting into energy solu-
tions.
Acknowledgement
For all the work done in this review paper let me
first express my solemn reverence to the supreme
power of the universe “GOD THE ALMIGHTY” for
bestowing me all those endowment which are re-
quired to accomplish, the venture like this. Also I
would like to express my deepest gratitude to my
mentor, Miss Misbah Bashir Assistant Professor,
Environment Department, Lovely Professional Uni-
versity whose contribution instimulating sugges-
tions, guidance and encouragement from initial to
final level in collecting and analyzing various data
helped me alot in writing this review paper.
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