Development and performance evaluation of small size household portable biogas plant for domestic use

Abstract

Biogas is one of the renewable energy resources produced from the anaerobic fermentation of biomass. About 60% of Pakistan population live in rural areas that demand energy source for domestic and commercial use. Therefore, biogas plants can be used as one of the renewable energy sources in Pakistan. This paper described the development and performance evaluation of small size household portable biogas plant. The lightweight double-ply polypropylene material is used to fabricate the biogas plant, which is durable and easily portable. The volume of the digester was 2.15 m3, and the gasholder volume was 0.84 m3. The performance of the developed plant and biogas production is verified by three different treatments of feeding materials, i.e., buffalo dung (BD), buffalo dung plus sheep waste (BD + SW), and buffalo dung plus chicken droppings (BD + CD). The maximum biogas productions for treatments BD, BD + CD and BD + SW were recorded 0.59 m3/kg-VS, 0.61 m3/kg-VS, and 0.79 m3/kg-VS, respectively. The AMPTS was also conducted to compare total methane production. The nutrient analysis performed for both substrate and slurry showed improved nutrient quantity in the slurry. The cost estimation cleared that fixed biogas plants have 1.27 times more costly than that of portable biogas plants. The developed biogas plant is favorable for its light in weight and low cost, and it can produce enough methane gas to fulfill the domestic requirements.