Abstract
Biogas can provide a solution to some of South Africa’s energy needs, especially in rural areas of Eastern Cape Province that have plentiful biogas substrates from donkeys, goats, sheep, cattle and chicken. We investigated the effectiveness of donkey dung for biogas production using a designed and constructed cylindrical field batch biogas digester. The donkey dung was collected from the University of Fort Hare’s Honeydale Farm and was analysed for total solids, volatile solids, total alkalinity, calorific value, pH, chemical oxygen demand and ammonium nitrogen (NH4-N). The biogas composition was analysed using a gas analyser. We found that donkey dung produced biogas with an average methane yield of 55% without co-digesting it with other wastes. The results show that donkey dung is an effective substrate for biogas production.
Highlights
Anaerobic digestion is a biological process that naturally occurs when bacteria decompose organic matter, producing mainly methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) in an oxygen-free environment.[1]
We observed that biogas production was low at the beginning and end periods of the anaerobic digestion process
We investigated the potency of donkey dung for biogas production
Summary
Anaerobic digestion is a biological process that naturally occurs when bacteria decompose organic matter, producing mainly methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) in an oxygen-free environment.[1] The anaerobic digestion process is divided into four steps as follows: hydrolysis, fermentation (acidogenesis), anaerobic oxidation (acetogenesis) and methanisation.[2,3,4] Hydrolysis. This is an enzyme-mediated stage, where insoluble organic compounds such as proteins, fats, lipids and carbohydrates are converted into soluble organic components, such as amino acids, fatty acids and monosac charides.[5 ] Fermentation.
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