Green Fuel: Why Is Biogas So Important?

Biogas is a gaseous green fuel that is produce when organic matters like animal manure and plant materials decay in an air-tight chamber called a biogas/anaerobic digester. Biogas contains mainly methane (CH4), carbon dioxide (CO2) and small percentage of hydrogen sulphide (H2S). In a world plagued by environmental, economic and health problems as a result of the use of fossil fuel, replacing fossil fuels with green fuels like biogas will help in alleviating these problems as follows.

1. Methane Capture: When piles of organic matter decay, they give off some methane into the atmosphere. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas that is about 21 times more effective in trapping heat from the earth than carbon dioxide. This simply means that methane is 21x worse than CO2. Once released, methane can remain in the atmosphere for as long as 15 years!

Apart from carbon dioxide, methane is another gas that is
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Biogas Production: Avoid Failure by Using the Correct Carbon-Nitrogen Ratio

To produce biogas, you need organic matters like animal manure, animal wastes and plant matters. These organic matters added to the biogas digester are called feedstock. Every organic matter has a carbon-nitrogen (C/N) ratio. For proper biogas production, the C/N ratio of the feedstock mix should be between 20 and 30. Micro-organisms in the biogas digester feed on carbon (as carbohydrates) and nitrogen (as protein, nitrates, ammonia, etc.) to produce biogas. They use carbon as an energy source and nitrogen for building cell structures. These organisms use up carbon about 30 times faster than they use nitrogen so they require a carbon-nitrogen ratio closer to 30. Let’s look at what happens if your feedstock mix does not meet this ratio.

C/N Ratio too Low (Too much nitrogen): If there is too much nitrogen, the carbon will be exhausted first and biogas production will stop. The remaining nitrogen will be lost
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