Biogas Generation from Agricultural Waste: A Case Study of Sugarcane Bagasse as Feedstock
摘要
In India, there is abundant availability of biomass, which can produce useful biogas energy. Biomass in the form of agricultural waste is generally burned by the farmers, which causes environmental nuisance as well as loss of useful energy. The objective of the present experimental work is to access the feasibility of biogas generation from agricultural waste and to propose a user friendly methodology for biogas generation. Sugarcane bagasse has been used as a feedstock for biogas generation. Composition of the feedstock has been tested in laboratory, which ensures its suitability for biogas generation. Mechanical pretreatment of crushing has been applied to the feedstock and cow dung has been used as an inoculum. The process of anaerobic digestion has been carried out in a floating drum type biogas digester with water jacket. Average volume of the biogas generated per kg of dry feedstock is 179.87 L. The raw biogas produced contains average methane content of 56.45% and hydrogen sulfide content of 943 ppm. The biogas produced has been used for domestic cooking. The by-product in the form of outlet slurry has been tested in the laboratory and contains all prominent nutrients such as nitrogen (N), phosphorous, and potassium (K). The present study proposes the use of a custom-designed biogas digester suitable for biogas generation from sugarcane bagasse, highlights observations related to operational parameters and seasonal variations. Overall, the sugarcane bagasse feedstock shows a very good potential for biogas generation with reasonably good methane content.