How to Calculate the Biogas Volume of an Anaerobic Digester?

[A87]

Hey guys

Does anyone know how to calculate the biogas volume of an anaerobic digester depending on the type of biomass fed in.

Are there any good sources on this specific question?

Thanks

 

[Ryan_m_b]

Hey guys

Does anyone know how to calculate the biogas volume of an anaerobic digester depending on the type of biomass fed in.

Are there any good sources on this specific question?

Thanks

I think this would be heavily dependent on what organism you are using, what biomass you are feeding it, what the environmental conditions are and ultimately what biochemical processes occur.

 

[A87]

Hi

Using the miscanthus energy crop as a biomass with thermophilic conditions. External environmental conditions at average UK. Just to get an idea of the process behind this calculation and what equations/models are used.

Thanks

 

[Ryan_m_b]

Hi

Using the miscanthus energy crop as a biomass with thermophilic conditions. External environmental conditions at average UK. Just to get an idea of the process behind this calculation and what equations/models are used.

Thanks

I'm not an expert in this field but I do not see how one could answer the question without a far greater knowledge of the processes involved. You would have to know what processes the bacteria use to make the gas. For example;

If the vegetation contained chemical X2Y1 which was broken down in this process,

X2Y1 + A2 --> X2 + Y1A2

Where X2 is the biogas then you could estimate how much gas you would get by knowing how much X2Y1 is in the vegetation and knowing how long it would take the bacteria to break it down. I think the best bet for you to find your answer is to search for peer-reviewed literature on the specific biogas you are looking for or email experts in the field directly.

 

[henlus]

Organic matters like maize silage, grass silage, cow dung etc have their volumetric biogas yield per kg of organic matters. You can find them by googling sth like "biogas pdf"