Study on biogas energy production from cactus Opuntia ficus-indica (L.) Mill

Abstract

ABSTRACT Anaerobic digestion (AD) technology for methane production is a more efficient method for energy generation from biomass compared to other biological and thermo-chemical conversion processes (Yi Zheng et al. 2014). This paper presents the experimental results of the anaerobic digestion of cactus (Opuntia ficus-indica) (L.) and methane content of each of the treatments, T1 and T2 (<1-year cactus at 27oC and 37oC), T3 and T4 (1-year cactus at 27oC and 37oC), T5and T6 (2-year cactus at 27oC and37oC), T7 and T8 (3-year cactus at 27oC and 37oC) were performed. From 500g of cactus it was found that the amount of biogas production and quality was highest in T2 (3500ml of biogas and 49% CH4) and T4 was the second highest in the amount of production and quality (3400ml of biogas and 45% CH4). T7 produced the minimum biogas production and quality (2500ml of biogas and 33% CH4). Moreover, compare to other source of energy, cactus produced a good volume of biogas but low in quality due to its C: N ratio. Thus, Cactus can be digested alone or it can be one of the feed stock for co-digestion process. This could give better quality biogas.