Enhancement of biogas production from cattle dung using additive

Abstract

Biogas is a clean, environmental friendly and renewable form of energy generated by anaerobic degradation of organic materials. The biogas production decreases drastically in winter probably due to decrease in temperature, which in turn decreases the dehydrogenase activity as observed in biogas slurry. Thus, it becomes necessity to find out some additive/ stimulant capable of enhancing biogas production. Jaggery is a good source of carbon and energy. It can stimulate the metabolic activity of micro flora. Therefore, in the present investigation jaggery was used as an additive for enhancement of biogas production from cattle dung under batch anaerobic digestion. Cattle dung (3 kg) was mixed with 5, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 g jaggery respectively on dry weight basis in different digesters each having 5 litres capacity and digested for nine weeks with temperature varied from 12 to 24oC. The maximum biogas production (40.0 l/kg), highest volumetric biogas production (0.480 l/l/d) and maximum degradation of TS (27.2%) and VS (30.8%) was observed with supplementation of cattle dung with 40 g jaggery in batch anaerobic digestion.