The integrated generation of solid fuel and biogas from biomass (IFBB) is particularly designed for the conversion of semi-natural and high biodiversity grassland biomass into energy. This biomass is problematic in common energy conversion techniques, e.g. biogas conversion or combustion, because of its chemical composition. The IFFB process separates the material into a fibre rich solid fuel a...

2.0 What are the challenges? There are two groups of ‘biogas generating’ organisms available within an Anaerobic Digestion process: acetoclastic methanogens and hydrogenotrophic methanogens. Food waste has a high nitrogen content due to the high protein component. During anaerobic digestion this generates a high level of ammonia which is toxic to the acetoclastic methanogens. Whilst biogas prod...

Early warning indicators for process failures were investigated to develop a reliable method to increase the production efficiency of biogas plants. Organic overloads by the excessive addition of rapeseed oil were used to provoke the decrease in the gas production rate. Besides typical monitoring parameters, as pH, methane and hydrogen contents, biogas production rate and concentrations of fatt...

Biogas methane content is a relevant variable in anaerobic digestion processing where knowledge of process kinetics or an early indicator of digester failure is needed. The contribution of this work is the development of a novel, simple and low cost automatic carbon dioxide-methane gas sensor based on the solubility of gases in water as the precursor of a sensor for biogas quality monitoring. T...

The growing number of biogas plants in Europe has resulted in increased production of nutrient-rich digestate, which has potential as fertiliser on arable land. Many different organic materials can be degraded in the anaerobic digestion process, with most macronutrients and micronutrients retained in the digestate. Depending on the ingoing organic substrate and management of the biogas process,...

Worldwide, anaerobic digestion for sanitation and utilization of the produced biogas as energy carrier have a long-standing history. Concomitantly, digested residues from biogas plants are utilized as valuable fertilizers in crop production. In Germany, guaranteed prices for electricity generated from renewable sources pushed the number of biogas plants from about 140 in 1992 to about 7,720 by ...

To accomplish the rapid start-up and stable operation of biogas digesters, an efficient inoculum is required. To obtain such an inoculum for food waste anaerobic digestion, we domesticated dairy manure anaerobic digestion residue by adding food waste every day. After 36 days, the pH and biogas yield stabilized signifying the completion of domestication. During domestication, the microbial commu...

This study focused on identifying various system boundaries and evaluating methods of estimating energy performance of biogas production. First, the output-input ratio method used for evaluating energy performance from the system boundaries was reviewed. Secondly, ways to assess the efficiency of biogas use and parasitic energy demand were investigated. Thirdly, an approach for comparing biogas...

Biomass burning in indoor environments has been highlighted as a major cause of respiratory morbidity for women and children in low-income countries. Inexpensive technological innovations which reduce such exposures are needed. This study evaluated the impact of low tech compost digesters, which generate biogas for cooking, versus traditional fuel sources on the respiratory health of nonsmoking...