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ANIMAL AND PLASTIC WASTES FOR BIOGAS PRODUCTION

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Third International Environmental Forum, Environmental Pollution: Problem & Solution, Tanta University, Egypt,
July 12-14, 2016. (Tanta University Journal of Environment, Special Issue 9 : 405-408.)

ANIMAL AND PLASTIC WASTES FOR BIOGAS PRODUCTION

Kassem, H 1 and Fouda T. Z. 2
1
PhD, Fac. of Agric., Tanta Univ
2
Prof., of Agric. Eng. Dept., Fac. of Agric., Tanta Univ
hossameldinkassem@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT: Animal wastes from cattle and buffalos became is a problems which face the farmers in Egypt.
Also plastic wastes such as deposits of plastic storage containers for chemical materiel cause environmental
pollution. The aim of this case study were recycling the animal wastes and reuses the empty plastic storage
containers as a small reactor unit heated by solar energy to produce biogas and evaluate underground small size
digesters under operating parameters such as different of hydraulic of retention time (HRT) from 7 to 42 day and
digesters positions (up ground and underground) digesters as a function with final product l/d, biogas cumulative
(l) and biogas energy (MJ/ /day). The obtained results show that the highest biogas production was observed in
up ground digester type about 28.64 l/d. Meanwhile the lowest was 19.10 l/d with underground digester. The
results indicated that increasing the HRT from 7 to 42 days led to increase the biogas cumulative rate from
(21.94 to 155.86) and from (19.1 to 141.32) l at up ground and underground digester respectively. While
increasing in the HRT from 7 to 35 days lead to increase the daily average biogas energy from (0.284 to 0.370)
and from (0.282 to 0.340) MJ/day at the same conditions.

Keywords: Wastes, Recycling, Reactor, Biogas, Energy

INTRODUCTION methanogenesis and fermentation are the rate-

Biogas technology is a biological process which
converts organic materials wastes by an anaerobic
fermentation into useful energy In Egypt, methane
emissions are produced at 1580 and 20820 Mega-
grams from cattle and buffalos, respectively,
according to FAO (2015) [6].
Used cow dung slurry and olive mill waste -water
treatment with various hydraulic retention time
(HRT, days) under percentage total solid (TS,%) 4, 6
and 8%. The results showed that the highest
conversion of waste to biogas was obtained at HRT
of 20 days. As the HRT was decreased to 15 and 12
days, gradual increase for production (l/day). At
HRT 20 days the productivity of biogas were 1.16,
1.63 and 2.34 l/day under 4, 6 and 8% of Ts,
respectively.[4] The volumetric productivity of
biogas for the three different hydraulic retention
times (28, 24, and 20 days) was 0.280, 0.323, and,
0.390 (m3/m3/day) at operating temperature of 40 oC
respectively. Consequently reducing the hydraulic
retention times from 28 to 20 days led to increase
the biogas productivity by 39.29%.[5] Igoni et al. (
2008 ) stated that, a variety of digester types exists
for the anaerobic treatment of organic wastes. The
selected type depends on operational factors,
including the nature of the waste to be treated, e.g.
its solid content [7]. HRT is important to reactor
operation and design because it defines the length of
time the substrate and particular constituents
targeted for removal will be in contact with the
biomass with in the reactor. Reaction kinetics of
limiting kinetics in anaerobic digestion [9]. Two
types of bacteria to produce biogas upon temperature
ranges. The first type is mesophilic bacteria ranged
from 35 to 42 ºC which suitable winter conditions.
While, the second type is thermophilic bacteria
ranged from 45 to 60 ºC which suitable summer
conditions. These conditions increased growth,
productivity and activity of methane bacteria[10].
The daily average heat energy of biogas at used
control temperature 40 oC more than 30 oC by
106.67% and 100% in up ground and underground
digester, respectively with 5 min/h agitate time.
However, the results indicated that the increased of
the daily average heat energy of biogas at used
control temperature 40 oC more than 30 oC by 110%
and 67.39% in up ground and underground
digester, respectively with 15 min/4h agitate time
[8]. The aim of this case study were recycling the
animal wastes and reuses the empty plastic storage
containers as a small reactor unit heated by solar
energy to produce biogas and evaluate underground
small size digesters under operating parameters such
as different of hydraulic of retention time (HRT)
from 7 to 42 day and digesters positions (up ground
and underground) digesters as a function with final
product l/d, biogas cumulative (l) and biogas energy
(MJ/ /day).
MATERIALS AND METHODS
This research work was carried out during Jan and
Feb 2016 in the small farm, at Basuine, Gharbia

405
 TUEF-2016
Egypt. (latitude angle of 30.5○N, longitude of
30.6○E). The main objective of this research was
recycling cattle dung and reuse empty plastic
container to use as a small unit for produce biogas
The digesters were evaluated under operating
parameters such as different of hydraulic of retention
time (HRT) from 7 to 42 day and tow position of
digester (up ground and underground digester) as a
function with final biogas production l/d, biogas
cumulative (l) and biogas energy (MJ/ /day).
-Digesters constructions:
using deposal plastic storage containers as a small
digester was fabricated from Plastic sheet of 2 mm
thickness, 100 cm length and 50 cm diameter with a
total capacity of 200 liters as showing in Fig. 1
Fig. 1. plastic storage container as a small digester
These headings should be in 10 pt, italics, and
sentence case. Insert one blank line before and after
the headings. The further lower level headings
should be avoided. -Feeding inlet: it has a PVC inlet
and outlet tubes of 50 mm diameter for feeding of
organic wastes and rejecting the digester materials.
-Gas out let: released gas volume was collected in
gasholder and determined by using the wetted
displacement with a previously calibrated scale.
Animal waste: Cattle dung were used as a source to
fed the digesters obtained from the dairy farms. The
chemical properties of cattle dung showing in Table
1. The total volume of diluted cattle dung fed to the
biogas digester was 0.10 m3
Table(1) The chemical analysis of cattle dung
Parameter Percentage, %
Total solids (Ts), % 13.35
Volatile solids (% from Ts) 75.64
Total nitrogen (% from Ts) 1.17
Organic carbon, % 35.12
C/N ratio 30.02
pH 7.10
-Chemical analysis.
406
-Total solids (TS). and Volatile solids (TVS)
measured according to the American Public Health
Association [2].
-Organic matter and organic carbon (OM &
OC). The percentage of organic matter was
estimated from the percentage of ash (550-600 oC),
using the following equations [3]
Organic matter (%) = 100 (%) – ash (%)
Organic carbon (%) = Organic matter (%) / 1.8
-Hydrogen concentration and (pH). The pH was
directly measured in liquid samples using glass
electrode pH meter.
-Batch digesters. The fresh raw cattle dung was
collected randomly from dairy farms of Basuine
City, Gharbia Governorate. the cattle dung fluid
was prepared, where the fresh raw cattle dung was
poured in a separate container with a total volume
of 200 litter, (100 kg) manure and 70 litter water
were added to obtain slurry (7.8 total solids).
-Daily biogas production. During the batch
fermentations the released gas volume in litter
everyday was measured laboratory using the wetted
displacement with a previously calibrated scale in
litter.
-The biogas heat energy. This indicator can be
calculated from the following equation:
Emethane = (Vbiogas × Rm × HV × ηcomp.) /1000
Where: Emethane is methane biogas heat energy in
kWh, Vbiogas is quantity of biogas in m3/d, Rm is a
concentration of methane gas in percentage of
biogas, HV is a heating value (28 MJ/m3) and
ηcomp. is a combustion efficiency in dimensionless.
Rm depending on digester temperature according to
[1]
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
- Effect of hydraulic retention time and digester
type on biogas production
Hydraulic retention time considered an important
factor, which affects biogas production. The results
of the biogas production under seven levels of HRT
is shown in Fig.(2). The results revealed that by
increasing hydraulic retention time from 1 to 35 day
biogas production increased from 21.94 to 28.64 and
from 19.10 to 26.26 l/d with both up ground and
underground digesters respectively. However, by
increasing hydraulics retention time from 35 to 42
days biogas production decreased from 28.64 to
25.89, and from 26.26 to 23.90 l/d with both up
ground and underground digesters respectively. On
the other hand, over the first 7 days biogas
production was inversely proportional to paunch
fluid content. This disagreement may be subjected to
the competition between the bacteria cells or to
longer time required to adaptation with the
experimental conditions. In the range of 7 to 35 days
biogas production significantly increased owing to
the exponential growth of microoganisms. After 35
 TUEF-2016

days from the beginning of the experiments, biogas biogas decreased from 0.370 to 0.362, and from
production tends to decrease due to the stationary 0.340 to 0.310 MJ/day with both up ground and
phase of the microbial growth. underground digesters respectively.

up ground underground up ground underground

35
0.4

Biogas energy rate,MJ/d

30
Biogas production, l/d

0.35
25
0.3
20 0.25
15 0.2
0.15
10
0.1
5 0.05
0 0
7 14 21 28 35 42 7 14 21 28 35 42
H R T, day H R T, day

Fig. (2) Effect of HRT and digester type on biogas Fig. (4) Effect of HRT and digester type on daily
production. average heat energy of biogas

- Effect of hydraulic retention time and digester CONCLUSIONS

type on biogas cumulative rate
Fig. (3) illustrate a considerable effect of hydraulic
retention time and digester shape on biogas
cumulative rate. The results showed that increasing
hydraulic retention time from 7 to 42 days led to
increase biogas cumulative rate from 21.94 to
155.86 l and from 19.10 to 141.32 l with both up
ground and underground digesters respectively.
up ground
42
The highest biogas production was observed in up
ground digester type 28.64 l/d at 35 days HRT.
Meanwhile by increasing HRT from 7 to 42 days the
biogas cumulative rate was increased from 21.94 to
155.86 l and from 19.10 to 141.32 l with both up
ground and underground digesters respectively. The
highest daily average biogas energy was observed in
up ground digester type 0.37 MJ/day at 35 days
HRT.
underground
REFERENCES

35
[1]Abdel-Hadi, M.A. and S. A. M. Abdel El-
Azeem. (2008) "Effect of heating, mixing and
H R T, day

28
digester type on biogas production from buffalo
21 dung". Misr. J. Ag. Eng, 25(4): 1454-1477
14
[2]APHA (American Public Health Association),
7 (1989).”Standard methods for the examination of
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180
water and waste water”. 17 th.ed. Washington, D. C.
Biogas cumulative rate , l USA.

[3]Black, C. A.; Evans, D. O.; Ensminger, L. E.;

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 TUEF-2016

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408

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