KVASU goes places with biogas

Gas generated at unit can be transported in a specially made balloon

February 07, 2018 12:21 am | Updated February 08, 2018 03:12 pm IST - KALPETTA

The school of bio-energy and farm waste management of Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (KVASU) has developed a biogas plant which, it claims, is more efficient in converting kitchen waste into biogas.

The restricted flow anaerobic baffled reactor biogas plant is modelled on cow’s digestive system.

“The plant has a digester with a capacity of 3,000 litres, a balloon gas holder, moisture remover, and carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulphide removers,” John Abraham, Assistant Professor at the school, said.

“The first chamber of the digester unit will be filled with stomach content (rumen) of cattle collected from abattoirs and the second chamber will be filled with cow dung for producing microbes. Later, kitchen waste can be fed into the digester as feedstock for the microbes and it starts to produce biogas anaerobically,” Dr. Abraham, who mentored the project, said.

He said a major advantage of the unit was that biogas generated at the unit could be transported in a specially made balloon.

Vertical baffles

Moreover, commercial type of burner could be used with it by the help of a biogas compressor.

The digester has vertical baffles which restrict the flow of kitchen waste, which aids multiplication of microbes. “In traditional biogas plants, the hydraulic retention time or the time for completing digestion of the feeding material is high. But the retention time in the new plant is low as it has two chambers,” Dr. Abraham said. Around 100 litres of kitchen waste could be fed daily into the plant that produces 2 cubic metres of biogas a day. The project was completed in six months expending ₹1.50 lakh.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.