BIOGAS POWER

GENERATION
SYSTEM
OUTLINE

• Introduction
• Feedstock/Substrate
• Biogas impacts
• Types of biogas plants
• Types of Biodigesters
• Parameters for process optimization
• Mathematical Modelling
Introduction

• Biogas is a gas produced by anaerobic digestion (in the absence of oxygen) of organic material, largely
comprised of methane.
• Biogas originates from bacteria in the process of bio-degradation of organic material under anaerobic
(without air) conditions.
• Biogas is produced through the processing of various types of organic waste. It is a renewable and
environmentally friendly fuel made from 100% local feedstocks that is suitable for a diversity of uses
including road vehicle fuel and industrial uses.
• Digestion carried out by these microorganisms creates methane, which can be used as it is locally or
upgraded to biogas equivalent to natural gas quality, enabling the transport of the biogas over longer
distances.
• Material containing organic nutrients is also produced in the process, and this can be utilized for
purposes such as agriculture.
biodigester
• A biodigester is a tank that processes the organic material that produces biogas.
• A biodigester can come in different shapes and sizes, depending on the needs of the people using it and the local
possibilities in building materials

Feedstock/Substrate

 Animal dung
 Fisch waste
 Slaughter house waste
 Leaves, Water Hyacinth, Banana leaves & stem
 Food waste / Market waste
 Straw
 Municipal Waste (waste water, sludge and solid wastes)
 Human excreta
Biogas impacts
 Energy
- Cooking

- Lighting
 Saving of fire wood
– Environmental protection through reduced deforestation

 Agricultural improvements in terms of plant and animal production yields

– Increased household income

 Fertilizer production
- protection and/or recovering of soil fertility

 Sanitation
– Controlled disposal of animal manure and organic waste

 Health
– Reduction of diseases related to wastewater and solid waste
– Reduction of exposure to smoke while cooking
 Climate protection
Types of biogas plants

1.Batch type plants

are filled and then emptied completely after a fixed retention time. They are used for large scale application.
High labor input, gas output not steady.
2. Continuous plants

are fed and emptied continuously. They empty automatically through the overflow whenever new material is
filled in. They are best suited for small-scale domestic
applications.
3.Semi Batch basis if straw and dung are to be digested together, the plant can be operated on a semi batch
basis. The slowly digested straw-type material is fed in about twice a year as a batch load. The dung is added
and removed regularly.
Types of Biodigesters

 Floating Drum
 Fixed Dome
 Bag Digester
 Plastic Digester
 Plug Flow Digester
 Anaerobic Filter
• UASB (Uplift Anaerobic Sludge Blanket) Digester

A. Floating Drum

• In the past, floating-drum plants were mainly built in India. They are chiefly used for digesting animal and human
feces on a continuous-feed mode of operation, i.e. with daily input. They are used most frequently by small to middle-
sized farms (digester size: 5-15m3) or in institutions and larger agro-industrial estates (digester size: 20-100m 3).
• In this design, the digester chamber is made of brick masonry in cement mortar. A mild steel drum is placed on top of
the digester to collect the biogas produced from the digester. Thus, there are two separate structures for gas production
and collection.
 Types of Floating-drum Plants

There are different types of floating-drum plants:

 KVIC model with a cylindrical digester, the oldest and

most widespread floating drum biogas plant from India.
 Pragati model with a hemisphere digester
 Ganesh model made of angular steel and plastic foil
 floating-drum plant made of pre-fabricated reinforced
concrete compound units
 floating-drum plant made of fiber-glass reinforced polyester
 low-cost floating-drum plants made of plastic water

The life-time of the drum is short (up to 15 years; in tropical coastal containers or fiberglass drum.
regions about five years).  BORDA model: The BORDA-plant combines the static
advantages of hemispherical digester with the process-
stability of the floating-drum and the longer life span of a
water jacket plant.
A. Fixed dome digester
• Fixed dome Chinese model biogas plant as built in China as early as 1936. It consists of an underground brick masonry
compartment (fermentation chamber) with a dome on the top for gas storage
• In this design, the fermentation chamber and gas holder are combined as one unit.
• The life of fixed dome type plant is longer (from 20 to 50 years).

• A fixed-dome plant comprises of a closed, dome-shaped digester with an immovable, rigid gas-holder and a displacement
pit, also named 'compensation tank’.
• The gas is stored in the upper part of the digester. When gas production commences, the slurry is displaced into the
compensating tank. Gas pressure increases with the volume of gas stored, i.e. with the height difference between the two
slurry levels. If there is little gas in the gas-holder, the gas pressure is low
• The top part of a fixed-dome plant (the gas space) must be gas-tight. Concrete, masonry and cement

• Fixed dome plants produce just as much gas as floating-drum plants, if they are gas-tight. However, utilization of the gas
is less effective as the gas pressure fluctuates substantially
 1. Mixing tank with inlet pipe and sand trap. 7. Accumulation of thick sludge.
2. Digester. 8. Outlet pipe.
3. Compensation and removal tank. 9. Reference level
4. Gasholder.
5. Gas pipe.
6. Entry hatch, with gastight seal.

Advantage
• Low initial costs and long useful life-span;
• no moving or rusting parts involved;
• basic design is compact, saves space and is well insulated
Disadvantage
 Masonry gas-holders require special sealants and high technical skills for gas-tight construction; gas
leaks occur quite frequently; fluctuating gas pressure complicates gas utilization; amount of gas
produced is not immediately visible, plant operation not readily understandable
A. Bag digester

• This design was developed in 1960s in Taiwan. It consists of a long cylinder made of PVC or red mud plastic. The bag
digester was developed to solve the problems experienced with brick and metal digesters

• Bag digesters are very portable, low cost, and easy to implement.

• Plastic bag digesters are a lower cost solution compared to existing locally manufactured steel and cement bio digesters.

 
D. Plug flow digester

A plug flow digester vessel is a long, narrow, insulated and heated tank made of reinforced concrete, steel or fiberglass
with a gas tight cover to capture the biogas. Biogas produced by the digester is used to heat the digester to the desired
temperature

The plug flow digester is similar to the bag digester. It consists of a trench (trench length has to be considerably greater
than the width and depth) lined with concrete or an impermeable membrane

Plug-flow digesters are suitable for ruminant animal manure that has a solids concentration of 11 percent to 13 percent.
New material added to the tank at one end pushes older material to the opposite end.

Average retention time (the time a manure "plug" remains in the digester) is 20 to 30 days
 Advantages
 Low cost
 Ease of transportation
 Low construction sophistication
 Uncomplicated maintenance
 Less subject to climatic variations for fixed dome type

Disadvantages

 Relatively short lifespan

 High susceptibility to damage
 Low gas pressure
 Limited creation of local employment
 High impact on environment, less environmental-friendly
Parameters for process optimization
ƒ Substrate temperature
ƒ Available nutrients
ƒ Retention time (flow through time)
ƒ PH level
ƒ Nitrogen inhibition and C/N ratio
ƒ Substrate solid content and agitation
ƒ Inhibitory factors
Temperature range of anaerobic fermentation

Anaerobic fermentation is in principle possible between 3°C and approximately 70°C. Differentiation is generally made
between

three temperature ranges:

ƒ The psychrophilic temperature range lies below 20°C

ƒ the mesophilic temperature range between 20°C and 40°C

ƒ the thermophilic temperature range between 40°C and 55

If the temperature of the bio-mass is below 15°C, gas production will be so low that the biogas plant is no longer
economically feasible.
 Available nutrient
In order to grow, bacteria need more than just a supply of organic substances as a source of carbon and energy Requires
an adequate supply of nitrogen, sulfur, phosphorous, potassium, calcium, magnesium and a number of trace elements
such as iron, manganese, molybdenum, zinc, cobalt, selenium, tungsten, nickel etc
Normal substrates such as agricultural residues or municipal sewage usually contain adequate amounts of the mentioned
elements. Higher concentration of any individual substance usually has an inhibitory effect, so that analyses are
recommended on a case-tocase basis to determine which amount of which nutrients, if any, still needs to be added.

Retention time

can only be accurately defined in batch-type facilities. For continuous systems, the mean retention time is approximated
by dividing the digester volume by the daily influent rate. The effective retention time may vary widely for the individual
substrate constituents. Selection of a suitable retention time thus depends not only on the process temperature, but also on
the type of substrate used.
Substrate

For liquid manure undergoing fermentation in the mesophilic temperature range, the following approximate values apply:

ƒ liquid cow manure: 20-30 days

ƒ liquid pig manure: 15-25 days

ƒ liquid chicken manure: 20-40 days

ƒ animal manure mixed with plant material: 50-80 days

PH value

The methane-producing bacteria live best under neutral to slightly alkaline conditions. Once the process of fermentation has
stabilized under anaerobic conditions, the pH will normally take on a value of between 7 and 8.5. If the pH value drops below
6.2, the medium will have a toxic effect on the methanogenic bacteria.
 Nitrogen-content and C/N-ratio of organic substrates
metabolic activity of methanogenic bacteria can be optimized at a C/N ratio of approximately 8-20, whereby the optimum
point varies from case to case, depending on the nature of the substrate. Substrate can be mixed to get the optimum C/N
ratio

Substrate agitation

different ways of homogenizing the substrate or mixing it with water and co-substrate

ƒ Mixing and homogenizing the substrate in the mixing chamber

ƒ Agitation inside the digester

ƒ Poking through the in- and outlet pipes (small scale plants)

Inhibitory factors
The presence of heavy metals, antibiotics and detergents used in livestock husbandry can have an inhibitory effect on the
process of bio-methanation.
 2. Modelling

Determining the biogas production

Dung yield = liveweight (kg) x no. of animals x specific quantity of excrements

Sizing the plant
The size of the biogas plant depends on the quantity; quality and kind of available biomass and on the digesting temperature.
Sizing the digester
The size of the digester, i.e. the digester volume (Vd), is determined on the basis of the chosen retention time (RT) and the
daily substrate input quantity (Sd).
Vd = Sd x RT (m³ = m³/day x number of days)
The retention time, in turn, is determined by the chosen/given digesting temperature
In most agricultural biogas plants, the mixing ratio for dung (cattle and/or pigs) and water (B: W) amounts to between 1: 3 and
2: 1
Calculating the daily gas production (G)
The amount of biogas generated each day (G, m³ gas/d), is calculated on the basis of the specific gas yield (Gy) of the substrate
and the daily substrate input (Sd).
The calculation can be based on:
a) The volatile-solids content
G = kg VS-input x spec. Gy (solids)
b) the weight of the moist mass
G = kg biomass x spec. Gy (moist mass)
c) standard gas-yield values per livestock unit (LSU)
G = no. of LSU x spec. Gy (species)
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