Design and construction of biogas plant

Thesis Overview

<p> </p><p><strong>BACKGROUND TO STUDY &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</strong></p><p>Domestic Biogas plants produced renewable fuel from organic biomass and this fuel-gas is an alternative to fossil fuels, primarily consists of methane (CH4 or natural gas) and carbon dioxide (CO2) whose combustion will not cause environmental pollution that result global warming due to ozone depletion, eutraphication and desertification.</p><p>The cost of petroleum products is becoming increasing everyday which is a serious problem facing most developing countries of the world including Nigeria. Again, excessive energy demands from both rural and urban dwellers imply that other natural sources of energy have to been explored. Hence, conversion of agricultural wastes into biogas could be a leeway to solving some of these energy problems.</p><p>Biogas production is a complex biochemical process that takes in the absence of oxygen and in the presence of highly sensitive micro-organisms that are mainly bacteria (Hasimolo et al., 1980). The predominant component of flammable biogas is methane and carbon dioxide with traces of others gases like, H2S, NH3, CO, H2, N2, and water vapor etc. It has a heating value of 22MJ/m3 (15.6MJ/kg) (FAO, 1979). Consequently, biogas can be utilized in all energy consuming Application designed for natural gas (Ross, 1966).</p><p>Biogas technology has been in use in kenya since 1957 whereas in areas such as USA and in Asian countries like India, China and Parkistan, the gas has been fully utilized (Carl and John, (2002). The raw materials used in many places for the gas production are agricultural wastes ranging from animals manures to adverse selection of crop residues. Okafor (1998), utilized cassava peels and wastes water to produce animal feed that was used to feed pigs. The feces from the pigs were then converted to biogas. Experimentally, according to (A.U Ofoele and E.O. Uzodinma 2009).cow dung has been acknowledged as the best biogas producer amongst most animal wastes. The blend with cow dung and poultry droppings had the fastest onset of gas flammability while that with swine dung while highest cumulative of gas production.</p><p><strong>1.1</strong>&nbsp; <strong>STATEMENT OF PROBLEM</strong></p><p><strong>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</strong>Biogas plants have ability to accept a variety of organic residue as primary final inputs.</p><p>This include cow dung, agricultural residue, effluent discharge, food residues, etc most agricultural/food production processes have significant amount of organic residue output as by product. Traditionally, their residue is buried in land filled or discharged, which causes negative environmental impact. In some place, institutions have to pay fees to dispose off such residue. A biogas plant solves the residue disposal problems by converting residues into village energy. Biogas is created by bacterial in the process of biodegradation of organic materials under Anaerobic (without Air) condition. Methanogene material and return the decomposed product to the environment. In this process, biogas (methane) is generated which is a focus of remarkable energy.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>&nbsp;</strong></p><p><strong>1.2</strong>&nbsp; <strong>RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS</strong></p><p>Although, biogas system become flammable when the methane is at least 45%. If it does not burns, it means that content is the methane content is less than 45% and contains mainly CO2.</p><p>There is no significant difference in the energy potential of biogas and conventional cooking gas.</p><p><strong>1.3 PURPOSE OF STUDY</strong></p><p><strong>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</strong>The need to reduce the present high concentration on the conventional energy sources with all its attendant problems has given a great motivation for this project which will help to:</p><ul><li>To construct Biogas plant</li><li>To produce biogas from cow dung</li><li>To use the gas produced to generate heat<ul><li><strong>ADVANTAGES OF BIOGAS AS A FUEL</strong></li></ul></li><li>High calorific value</li><li>Clean fuel</li><li>No smoke production</li><li>No residue produced</li><li>Economical</li><li>Convenient ignition temperature</li><li>Efficient use of waste product.</li><li>Reduction of pathogen</li><li>Reduction of nutrient lost from field.</li></ul><p><strong>1.5 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY</strong></p><p>However, some problems were experienced during the production and performance test in the following areas:</p><p>TIME</p><p>The time the digester was charge and to has hot been enough to generate enough gas, coupled with the low environment temperature.</p><p>GLUE</p><p>To stop escape of digester slurry after stirring as the researcher could not get water sealed bearing for the work.</p><p><strong>ADHESIVE</strong></p><p>Adhesive was used along with the PVC valves.</p> <br><p></p>