Showing posts with label Bio Gas. Show all posts
Milo Takes Centerstage as New Biofuel
Posted by Unknown in Bio Gas, Sorghum (Milo) on Saturday, 23 March 2013
What do you think of when you hear ethanol? Corn, right? Well, you might start associating grain sorghum with ethanol.
News 5's Lauren Conley spoke with a sorghum farmer today on the increasing demand for grain sorghum.
The EPA recently approved sorghum- also known as milo - as an advanced bio-fuel. It's a big deal for sorghum farmers here in Nebraska.
"It will give us a market that we didn't have before," said farmer John Dvoracek.
The Nebraska Grain Sorghum Board is calling the designation a "win, win."
Sorghum, or milo is mainly used as a livestock feed. But, many farmers like John Dvoracek already sell their crop to the ethanol industry.
"Most ethanol plants will take sorghum in along with corn, because there is basically no difference between sorghum and corn," Dvoracek said.
They're so similar, that harvested sorghum fields look just like corn fields. They have one major difference.
"We call sorghum the water sipping plant," said Dvoracek.
Sorghum needs hardly any water to survive making it dependable in times of drought.
What exactly gives the grain the advanced biofuel rating?
It results in even less lifetime greenhouse gas emissions than other biofuels, like corn specifically greater than a 50% reduction.
So, where does this leave the corn industry?
Well, the Nebraska Corn Board is welcoming their competitor. Tim Scheer with the Nebraska Corn Board says, "...if we want to obtain our goal of continuing to reduce our dependence on foreign petroleum, that it will take multiple feedstocks such as sorghum, wheat, switchgrass, stover, etc to accomplish this goal."
Corn is grown almost in excess, while sorghum makes up only a small portion of farmland in the state and country.
The recent push to make sorghum an advanced biofuel may increase demand.
"Everything has it's niche and this might be sorghum's niche."
While most ethanol plants haven't announced any major changes one local plant may be changing soon.
Some reports state that the Abengoa Bioenergy plant in Ravenna has plans to go all sorghum.
From Waste To Energy
Posted by Unknown in Bio Gas, Fertilizer, Manure and Compost, Pakistan, waste management
By Tahir Ali
Despite huge potential and benefits, biogas technology has not been given due attention in Pakistan. With inflation, energy shortage aggravating with each passing day, there is a renewed interest in the technology as this type of gas can be used both for cooking and power generation and its residue as fertilizer and it can also decrease domestic fuel budget, deforestation and pressure on national power grid. It can also contribute towards sustenance of ecosystem and conservation of biodiversity in the country.
Over 4000 biogas plants were installed in Pakistan by the government between 1974 and 1987. But later, it withdrew the financial support which reduced the growth rate of this technology. Only 6,000 plants were installed till 2006. But the potential is even bigger.
There are currently around 47 million big animals in Pakistan. A medium size animal produces around 10 kg of dung per day. Even if its 50 percent is collected, the availability of dung comes to 233 million kg a day that can produce around 12 million cubic meters of biogas a day. Estimates say since 0.4m gas could suffice the cooking needs of a million Pakistanis, the fuel requirement of over 20 percent of them could be met only from biogas. It will also produce 19 million tons of bio-fertilizer per year, which can boost agricultural productivity.
Biogas plants are popular in Pakistan’s neighbourhood and even developed countries. There are almost two million bio-gas plants in India and the facilities have been built even in UK and US through official patronage. Around 89 such plants in the US are consuming 13 per cent or 95000 tons of waste to produce about 2500 mega watt of electricity that suffices for 2.3mn households.
In Nepal, where around 80 percent of the population lives in rural areas with no electricity, over the past 20 years, the biogas sector partnership, an NGO, has installed around 210,000 biogas plants to provide biogas for cooking and lighting. Each plant is estimated to have reduced Nepal’s carbon emissions by around 4.7 tonnes a year.
According to a United Nations report, cattle are responsible for 18 percent of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming — more than cars, planes, and all other forms of transportation put together. Their environmental impact could be minimised by converting their manure into a renewable source of energy.
The environmental protection agency (EPA) estimates that cattle emit about 5.5 million metric tons of powerful greenhouse gas, methane, per year into the atmosphere. The University of Texas, Austin, estimates that by using around one billion tonnes of manure produced annually in the United States for power/gas generation could also help eliminate 99 million tonnes of net greenhouse gas emissions there.
As per Pakistan Centre for Renewable Energy Technologies (PCRET) report, a family size biogas plant annually produces energy equivalent to 10056Kg wood, 22200 Kg animal dung, 1104 lit kerosene oil, 540 kg L.P.G or 9000 Kwh of electricity.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa too, despite having one million camels, 6mn cattle, 2mn buffaloes and over 12mn sheep and goats, has failed to utilise the waste of these animals for launching of bio gas plants on a big scale.
In the cattle breeding and dairy farm in Charsadda, a bio gas plant has been in operation but the innovative technology has not been disseminated on a mass scale in the province.
Under the project “development and promotion of biogas technology for meeting domestic fuel needs of rural areas and production of bio-fertilizer”, PCRET plans to install 368 biogas plants in rural areas of the country by June this year.
The government of Italy in November last year decided to provide Rs50 million to set up 436 biogas plants in six districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, including Peshawar, Charsadda, Nowshera, Abbottabad, Haripur and Mansehra.
Launched in 2008 with a target of 2500 such plants, PCRET has already installed over 2100 family size biogas plants in different parts of the country.
Earlier, based on a feasibility study, a programme implementation plan for domestic biogas of Pakistan was finalised with the support of rural support programmes network, NGOs and farmers’ organisations and is implemented by Pakistan biogas development enterprise. The construction of 30,000 biogas installations in 4 years will be supported in four provinces, including Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with a total investment of Rs2.7bn. Rs244mn would be disbursed as investment rebate support to the households who spend on the technology.
However, the potential is too enormous to be satisfied with this number. Animal waste is usually wasted. In Landhi Karachi alone, around 0.35mn cattle-heads are kept in a 3km area that produce thousands of tons of waste but 80-90 of it is thrown in the sea. A Canadian firm Highmark Renewables with the help of KESC plans to establish world’s biggest biogas plant at a cost of around $70 million that would produce up to 30 mega watt of power and 400 tons of residue bio fertiliser.
Some more facts
Any farmer having at least three animals can establish this plant with a one-time investment of Rs40,000 to 50,000
Gas produced in a small bio-digester which contains about 20 kg of dung should be enough to meet the fuel requirement of a small family. Based on these calculations, a bio-digester for any number of animals can be designed. However, the plant must be water/gas-tight. Enough manure and water must be added to it every day.
Firewood, dung and crop residues are major sources of energy for rural and low-income urban households. In 1992, firewood provided fuel to about 60 percent of rural and low income families followed by dung in dry form at around 18pc.
Only 4pc of Pakistan’s total area is covered by forest with only 5pc area protected. To control deforestation, adoption of biogas is the best technology and option in Pakistan.
It seems strange as to why biogas plants have not been installed to reduce the speed and scale of deforestation, especially in the forest-rich Malakand and Hazara divisions.
Around 70 percent population in KP lives in the rural areas. Most farmers have two or more cattle whose dung mixed with an equal proportion of water can be used to produce biogas. Any farmer having at least three animals can establish this plant with a one-time investment of Rs40,000 to 50,000.
If individual farmers are not ready or cannot afford the expenses, a few families with domestic animals could jointly install such a plant in their neighbourhood. And by selling the gas to families that cannot contribute manure daily for having no animals, the maintenance expenditure, if any, could be financed with this money.
The government needs to give more attention and funds to spread this technology to the countryside. Media should also create awareness among the rural community and NGOs and foreign investors should be encouraged to spread it.
A typical biogas plant consists of a digester where the anaerobic fermentation takes place, a gasholder for collecting the biogas, the input-output units for feeding the influent and storing the effluent respectively, and a gas distribution system.
How Farm Waste Provides Clean Energy for Homes | A Project By UNEP
Posted by Unknown in Bio Gas, Biofuel, Pakistan, Sustainable Agriculture, Sustainable and Renewable Energy, waste management on Sunday, 27 January 2013
A
project backed by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is
working to make clean energy a reality for households in a rural region
of Pakistan.
Sanghar,
a farming district in Sindh province in east-central Pakistan, is home
to nearly two million people. Wheat, cotton, sugar cane, rice and maize
are grown here, providing livelihoods and food for local communities.
In
the villages and towns of the district, access to reliable sources of
energy is difficult. Indeed, in households all over Sanghar, women
prepare meals and heat water by burning wood or biomass in rudimentary
stoves that release choking, black smoke.
Now
a new project backed by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
is working to make clean energy a reality for local households.
Realizing
that the district was a rich source of agricultural waste, UNEP's
International Environmental Technology Centre (IETC), based in Japan,
began working on a project to convert agricultural waste left in the
fields into clean, sustainable energy.
As
a first step, the IETC worked with the Mehran University of Engineering
and Technology in Jamshoro to quantify the amount of agricultural waste
in the district. A survey found that 2.5 million tonnes of waste ?
wheat and canola straw, cotton stalks, cotton gin waste, sugarcane tops,
bagasse, rice straw and husks, and banana plant ? was produced in the
district, although not all was available for conversion into energy.
A
subsequent calculation found that the energy potential of the available
waste was equivalent to 1.07 million tonnes of fire wood, or 910
million units of electricity (with a conversion efficiency rate of 20
per cent). If this energy potential was fully realised, the converted
waste could meet the energy demands of roughly 400,000 households (at
2400 units per household).
Further
research was done to determine how agricultural waste was managed and
used, to avoid future conflicts. For instance, it was learnt that 20 per
cent of sugarcane tops was being fed to animals, but 80 per cent was
being burnt in the fields, along with the entire quantity of banana
plant waste and about 70-80 per cent of rice straw. These materials
could therefore be used for energy conversion without impacting on food
supplies or other needs.
The
next step was to decide which technology to use. Several were
considered, but after careful analysis a biogas plant was selected, as
it had the twin benefits of being able to supply clean fuel (biogas) to
surrounding households and produce a good supply of compost, which could
be used as fertilizer. A site was chosen at the back of the Sanghar
Sugar Mills, which agreed to provide the land and funds to build the
plant.
Built
at a cost of two million rupees (about US$ 23,000), the biogas plant
opened on 1 August 2011. It is producing 50 cubic metres of biogas a
day, using 400 kilograms a day of agriculture waste. As well, it
produces 200 kilograms a day of liquid fertilizer and 150 kilograms a
day of solid fertilizer.
The
biogas produced is enough to provide energy to about 20 households,
putting to good use a resource that would otherwise have gone to waste.
For more information, please contact:
Surya Prakash Chandak, Senior Programme Officer, UNEP International Environmental Technology Centre, Email: surya.chandak@unep.org
Moira O'Brien-Malone, UNEP Division of Technology, Industry and Economics, Tel: +33 1 44 37 76 12, Email: moira.obrien-malone@unep.org
Cooking with Biogas in Karnataka
Posted by Unknown in Bio Gas, Biofuel, Manure and Composting, Zz_Wordpress on Monday, 10 September 2012
If 2,500,000 Indians can do it, so can we. Biogas digesters can power a family of five from cow dung. Upma Arora finds out how:
Rangamma, 45, is one of just five users of the first functional community biogas plant in Kabbigere, a semi-arid village tucked deep inside the Tumkur district of Karnataka. Ever since she started using the bio-gas stove, she feels as if she has a new life. “I could never imagine I could ever be able to save any time for myself. For my entire life, making even a cup of coffee would mean a constant search for firewood.
Cooking meals would involve preparing the mud hearths every day. The worst was the black soot deposits on the vessels that took forever to scrape and clean. The clothes used to be completely soiled and one could feel the lungs weakening with constant exposure to smoke from the chullah (primitive cooking place, which uses wood). With the cooking gas now, all that seems like a distant memory.”
A biogas plant consists of two components: a digester (or fermentation tank) and a gasholder. The conventional (and cheapest) biogas plant create electricity from human or animal dung. Extracting chemical energy from organic materials in a sealed container called a digester produces biogas. That is simply used as gas to power a cooker or water heater or light, or it can be turned into electricity via a gas powered diesel generator.
A small 3 cubic meter plant needs 75 kg of waste material per day to produce 3 cubic meters of gas, which would be sufficient for the requirements of a family of five. To obtain 75kgs of waste the family would own 5 to 8 cattle depending on how they are fed — if they are left to graze they produce less excreta than farm fed cattle. 0.65 cubic meter of gas is required to produce one unit electricity/ one kilowatt. With technological development, feeding in Biomass like dead leaves can also produce electricity, wood and vegetable waste in the biogas plant, 1 to 1.5 kg of wood can generate one unit of power.
The digester is usually a squat, cement cylinder two to four meters in diameter, with a duct in the side that allows the dung or other organic wastes to be fed in, along with water. In ambient temperatures of 25 to 35 degrees centigrade, the material soon begins to ferment. The digester is attached to the gasholder, which is normally an airproof steel container that, by floating like a ball on the fermentation mix, cuts off air to the digester and collects the gas generated. The gasholder is equipped with a gas outlet, while the digester is provided with an overflow pipe to lead the sludge out into a drainage pit. This process produces a mixture of gases, primarily methane and carbon dioxide, and nutrient-rich slurry. The gas is drawn out through a valve at the top of the digester, and the slurry is drained off into settling troughs at its base.
The gas can drive a generator to make electricity. 100% biogas engines are now available which are than connected to alternators. To use these engines the plant size should be 15 or more cubic meter as the engine need 0.45 cubic meter of gas per hour to produce one horsepower of electricity. The cost of these engines varies on size, but on average, 100% biogas engines are available at around $800-1,000 while the dual-purpose engines are $300-400.
Advanced plants can also use household waste for producing biogas through a new compact technology which requires 1 kg of starch or sugar (in the form of vegetable waste, flour collected from the floor of a flour mill) and just 24 hours to produce 250 gms of methane gas. Application of just 2 kgs of feedstock is enough to daily provide a nuclear family with sufficient biogas to cook all meals. Since it requires less space and the raw material is a part of every kitchen, it has an advantage over the conventional biogas system. Methane is the combustible component of biogas and therefore, it is than piped into homes and attached to cooking stoves to be used as a cooking fuel, or used to fire a diesel engine to generate electricity. The slurry is such an excellent fertilizer that it’s often more highly valued than the gas – biogas plants are often called “Bio fertilizer plants.”
A biogas digester with a 3 cubic meter capacity is enough to meet the cooking needs of a family of five – costs approximately 188 sterling and requires . The smallest about 27 square metres of land. The costs of inputs are minimal assuming the household has a water supply and at least five cows – the minimum necessary to supply the digester.
To summarise, the required quantity of dung and water is mixed in the inlet tank and this mix in the form of slurry is digested inside the digester. The gas produced in the digester is collected in the dome, called the gasholder. The digested slurry flows to the outlet tank from the dig through the manhole. The slurry then flows through overflow opening to the compost pit where it is collected and composted. The gas is supplied to the point of application through the pipeline. This is attached to cooking stoves with a valve to control the flow of gas as a when required. The energy produced can also be used on the farm by piping it to lampposts or the energy can be sold, said the head of bio gas plant installation in the state of Madhya Pradesh in India, Mr Bamborriya.
He explained the nitty-gritty of bio gas and its requirement and touched on how the energy is used. Initially, the farmer uses the electricity produced on his own farm for his own requirements like pumping, lightning and etc. He saves money because he needs no or less electricity from outside sources. Surplus electricity can be sold to the nearest public utility company according to the Renewable Energy Law. Especially in such situations where there is no (or few) consumer on the farm that need electricity, the farmer earns money by selling the electricity from renewable energy biogas’. The heat produced can be used for the stables, the farmhouse, drying of grain and other useful purposes. 10 to 30% of the electricity and heat produced is used by the biogas plant itself. Surplus electricity and heat are sold on for the financing of the biogas plant. Normal times for writing-off are 4 to 8 years.
Of course, there are other ways to use biogas. For example, for heat production: steam or hot water. This is attractive if there is need for large amounts of steam. Or the heat can be used to power refrigeration, for cooling stored fresh milk in a dairy
Biogas in plants in countries like India and Sri Lanka have brought significant changes in the lives of farmers, Mr. Ratnayake is one of the beneficiaries of bio gas plant from a small village in north India. With nothing more than cow dung, he now has enough power to cook with, iron the laundry and provide heat and light for his home without using a single piece of wood. All he has to do is to collect the manure from his cows in a specially adapted cattle shed where they feed, mix it with water and leaves it to ferment in a large concrete tank or pit. The gas produced is collected in a simple storage tank, from where it is piped into his house to use. The dried manure left after biogas is generated is richer than ordinary manure and makes a fantastic organic fertilizer for Mr. Ratnayake’s crops, which he can sell at a higher price as organic produce.
A positive side-effect is that women and children are freed from firewood collection cleaning smoke-blackened utensils and the disposal of animal waste. They gain two hours a day for other activities. About 80% now use this time to earn extra income that currently accounts for approximately 24% of the family’s monthly income. Another advantage of using biogas is that there is very little waste from the process and it is environmentally friendly.
Biogas plants are not only a source of energy in third world countries, in countries likes Denmark, Germany, Scotland and Ireland also has widespread use of biogas. In these countries biogas plants are far more advanced and more integrated. For example, In Denmark you find three categories:
20 community biogas plants, each 540-7500 m3, delivering electricity to the grid and heat to the town. 50-70% manure and 30-50% industrial waste.
8 large, rather primitive farm biogas plants using the concrete manure storage tank as digester. With cogeneration.
18 “Smedemester” farm biogas with steel digesters, 45oC operation temperature. 150-800 m3 digesters. 2-5% fish waste oil co fermentation. Cogeneration units 100-500 kW.
Although, biogas in Denmark has not found a widespread use like in Germany. There is an important farm biogas sector in Germany, mainly using concrete digesters whereas almost all biogas plants in Denmark are from steel. In Germany many smaller farms have biogas and also on ecological and biodynamic farms you can find biogas. However, the widespread use of biogas in defiantly the next best and sensible thing to adopt to save energy and environment.
Biogas plants have being a source of energy for the third world countries for long, the use of biogas in rural areas have reduced human dependency on natural gas and firewood, saving forests and increasing soil fertility. The poor people can save money by using biogas rather than buying natural gas or firewood for their domestic needs, which have brought significant changes in their lifestyle. However, the waste material used to produce biogas is available everywhere and its time when we found ways to generate energy from renewable resources rather than using up the scare energy resources and save the environment. The experts believe that biogas is far more cost effective and environmental friendly than natural gas.
The developed countries like USA, pay cash to poor countries for not burning firewood, which leads to 25 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions due to human activities. Rather than paying poor countries, it would make much better sense for developed countries to cash in on the benefits of biogas themselves, as they have greater capacity for research and development to optimise the production and use of biogas.
