Enhancement of the biogas system application using solar photovoltaic and IoT based automation

Abstract

After oil crises in 1970s and its fallout effect on economic growth impels the development of alternative source of energy. In 1981 Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources, started National Project on Biogas Development (NPBD). Due to socio-economic and environmental impact of biogas and because of its vast potential in India, NPBD has been receiving public attention but on other hand NPBD faces challenges because of its poor performance, high mortality and non-functionality rates. This paper presents a comparison between conventional biogas plants like Deenbandhu model, KVIC floating drum type with GauGas biomass digester, a new prototype developed by SutainEarth Energy Solutions. This paper also attempts to find the issues with the installed GauGas plants in rural areas of Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh. Issues related to the measuring the volume of biogas consumption and interruption of grid power for catering booster pump are identified. IoT based scheme for measuring the run time of the booster pump and there by calculating the volume of gas consumption and solar photovoltaic based system to provide uninterrupted power supply are suggested as solutions to the issues and the results are discussed. For making the system more economic, DC booster pumps are suggested over AC booster pumps.