Developing Simple Procedures for Selecting, Sizing, Scheduling of Materials and Costing of small bio-gas units

Abstract

The end users of biogas systems in most cases are farmers whose technical knowledge of the systems is limited. It is therefore important that material be availed to them which can assist them in making the decision whether to proceed with installation or not without having to hire professionals at a very early stage. The objectives of this study were to develop literature that could be used by laymen to assess the viability of installing biogas units and to size the biogas units with reference to a selected numbers of cows. A number of existing designs were analyzed and the floating drum design adopted based on a weighted-point approach that was developed in this study. Tables relating the number of cows to the size of a floating drum biogas unit and its cost of construction were developed.