What is Biogas and How Has It Been Hijacked?

The term 'biogas' is commonly used to refer to a gas which has been produced by the biological breakdown of organic matter in the absence of oxygen. The gases methane, hydrogen and carbon monoxide can be combusted or oxidized with oxygen and the resultant energy release allows biogas to be used as a fuel. In the same way that ethanol and biodiesel have been around for a long time, biogas has a long history. Back in the 13th century, explorer Marco Polo noted that the Chinese used covered sewage tanks to generate power. The author of Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe  – referred to biogas technologies back in the 17th century. Biogas has been used widely in the UK for centuries and back in 1895, the city of Exeter used gas from sewage to power its city street lamps. According to its composition, biogas presents characteristics interesting to compare with natural gas and propane. Biogas is a gas appreciably lighter than air, it produces twice as less calories by combustion with equal volume of natural gas.

Biogas is Awesome!

Biogas is also known as biomethane (when further purified and compressed), swamp gas, landfill gas, or digester gas—is the gaseous product of anaerobic digestion (decomposition without oxygen) of organic matter. In addition to providing electricity and heat, biogas is useful as a vehicle fuel. When processed to purity standards, biogas is called renewable natural gas and can substitute for natural gas as an alternative fuel for natural gas vehicles. The gas has a composition which is usually 50% to 80% methane and 20% to 50% carbon dioxide with traces of gases such as hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen. In contrast, natural gas is usually more than 70% methane with most of the rest being other hydrocarbons (such as propane and butane) and traces of carbon dioxide and other contaminants.

What is Biogas - Its "one of the most untapped sources of natural and sustainable energy available"

Biogas is one of the most untapped sources of natural and sustainable energy available. It is used all over the world and by far the largest number of biogas plant (technically known as anaerobic digestion plants) are relatively small installations and are found in the developing nations. India for instance has more than 12 million digesters). The Africa Biogas Partnership Programme (ABPP) 70,000 biogas plants in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Senegal and Burkina Faso. That project alone will be expected to be providing about half a million people access to a sustainable source of energy by this year 2013. Biogas plants can be useful resources wherever you are. An example of this is the Mount Everest area. It is a destination for climbers and trekkers from all over the world. While visiting our world’s highest mountain, climbers, trekkers, and walkers take away great memories, lots of photos and new friends, but leave behind their untreated waste. At the Mount Everest Biogas Project they are going to convert human waste from base camp into environmentally safe products for the people of Nepal, by designing a biogas system that can operate at high altitudes (above 5000 meters / 16,400 feet) above sea level. The area is the home to the summit peaks of Mt. Everest, Pumori, Lhotse and Nupste. The base camps for Everest and the other peaks in Sagarmatha National Park, Nepal are the expeditions’ summit climb beginning. These base camps host the climbers for weeks as they prepare physically and mentally for the challenge ahead. These camps have also, over the years, been scarred by human impact. With so many people in such a limited space, the challenge of limiting pollution due to human waste has persisted. Anaerobic digestion is unique in its ability to reduce the impact of visitors by providing biogas as a cooking fuel, which reducing the need for the local people to denude the local tree growth to heat their food and eat.

The Future for Biogas Lies With a Domestic Biogas Plant Revolution in the West

That is a measure of how both humble in its nature, but capable of healing nature, anaerobic digestion can be.

But, there needs to be a revolution in its use so that the western world can reap the same benefits as the east has done at a domestic level. The west needs to tap it's own domestic waste for renewable energy and home biogas plants offer a 100% natural way to do this.

Clean-burning biogas at home from ordinary kitchen and garden waste is the future. Biogas generates more energy than solar panels anytime day or night, rain or shine at a fraction of the cost.

And unlike solar panels, biogas provides excellent cooking fuel and high-quality nitrogen-rich fertilizer for gardening or landscaping. Biogas is a mixture of gases composed largely of methane produced during the natural decomposition of organic matter. Home and small farm biogas systems are simple as 1-2-3 to operate and biogas can be used for anything fossil natural gas can, including cooking, running generators and pumps and even vehicle fuel.

Biogas for the Future

The possibilities of increased use of anaerobic digestion as an effluent treatment process depend upon the introduction of improved small scale and particularly domestic scale reactor designs. However, there are critical factors influencing the economic use of the process which still need to be addressed in the context of use of AD in the home in the industrialized and wealthy west. The choice of better digester designs is therefore essential in relation to the waste itself, and problems in its supply, and handling and transportation of the end product from urban households will need to be solved. Limitations concerning thermodynamic efficiency, scrubbing costs, flammability, compressibility and storage are also hampering home use of biogas plants. Communities and governments throughout the west should be investing heavily in the development of new small scale anaerobic digestion system technologies with the vision of making them as common as the domestic washing machine and dishwasher is today. Then the west would benefit from this amazing technology just as the east is already is. Why is the west so lacking in vision?

"AD in the west has been hijacked by big business"

Surely, the west is being left behind with so few domestic scale AD Plants? They work massively in the developing world so why not in the west? The fact is that unfortunately in the west we all think of big corporations when we think of biogas, and we are missing the point. Biogas works best at the small scale. Why don't the developed nations realize this? We are all blind to this because, AD in the west has been hijacked by big business. It has been stolen from the average person. This isn't right!

What is its Future?

All people in the developed nations should go out and demand government support and investment in their own anaerobic digestion plants in their own homes. Anything less flies against all the evidence. As we have already explained. They can do it in India, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Senegal and Burkina Faso. So why not here in the developed world as well?

For more detailed technical information we suggest you download the excellent factsheet at: http://www.worldbioenergy.org/content/wba-press-release-biogas-important-renewable-energy-source

Originally at: the AD Blogsite article here.

What is Biogas?

We thought that today we would go back to basics, and use this blog to answer the most common question in the Anaerobic Digestion scene today, which is no doubt a reflection of the large number of people who are now hearing about biogas for the first time.

So, you want to know what Biogas is! Few are aware of it, but the anaerobic digestion process is as old as life, and we here we explain what biogas is, how biogas is made, and how it can help the planet.

The basis for biogas is natural product such as meals scraps and feces which are held in an anaerobic tank, which can easily vary from a storage tank which is not ventilated to a gadget which is especially made to produce gases. The conditions encourage anaerobic micro-organisms, which start to break down the organic product, producing methane and carbon dioxide as a resultant effect. Yet another type of biogas which features hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon monoxide can be obtained through the gasification of biomass such as wood or rice husks, a method which is used to make gas industrially.

Biogas is the gas that is the product of the food digestion of natural products under anaerobic conditions. Substrates such as manure, sewage sludge, municipal solid waste, bio-degradable wastes or feedstock are transformed into methane and carbon dioxide.

The biogas digester depends on bacterial decomposition of biomass, waste material which is biological in origin, varying from cooking area scraps to cow dung. As anyone who has walked past an inadequately kept outhouse or garden compost pile is mindful, when anaerobic conditions establish in a collection of biomass, they entice bacterial organisms which emit a number of distinctive gases, most notably methane, in the procedure of digestion. These gases are typically deemed a symptom of inability and they are vented away for disposal, but they can in fact be really helpful.

Exactly How is Biogas Produced?

Biogas is made in the Anaerobic food digestion process. There are many methods which this is done, ranging from in containers, for experimentation, to significant tanks. The largest anaerobic food digestion plants are those utilized for digesting the sewage sludge which collects in all sewerage works. The biggest number of anaerobic digesters are the so-called "dome kind". These biogas digesters start underground. The organic matter (also called slurry) is displaced into a "settlement tank" as the biogas forms. The gas is collected in a brick framework that sits above ground, right over the decaying matter.

Another type of anaerobic digestion plant is the Floating Drum Type. This sort of digester additionally begins underground. A metal drum drifts above the slurry, either in a water jacket or straight on the slurry. The drum floats greater and higher as it is filled with biogas.

Winding Up

It has actually constantly been crucial to do just what we can easily for our environment, but the continuing massive boosts in industrial procedures and output has actually made it more essential than ever before. And not only are our industrial outputs increasing, but our global population continues to grow at a steady pace, necessitating a huge change in the way we approach our industrial practices.

Biogas generators have not yet come to be a common piece of machinery in residences since a totally efficient model has actually not yet been completely developed yet. There are many designs that do in reality produce superb power and a solid backup system.

In the meantime, many of these generators can currently power a strong range of devices, however the accessibility of fuel is an additional factor that has held the propagation of these generators in check. But, their usage is expanding fast and they are terribly required to supply clean sustainable energy to the globe.

We hope that reading this has actually alerted you to the potential of biogas from anaerobic digestion to alter energy and our globe for the better so we advise you discover out more at the following link: Biogas Digester Website www.biogas-digester.com