Biogas Production using Sugarcane Bagasse

Abstract

Non-renewable energy sources have been found to pose various environmental problems such as greenhouse gas emissions as they tend to deplete at faster rates. Renewable energy could, however, replace the conventional sources of energy such as fossil fuel and oil, serving as an alternative source of energy. Biological processes such as fermentation and anaerobic digestion for the past decades have given rise to the production of biofuels such as biogas and bioethanol. The inchoate gain in the shift for a renewable source of energy is that the feedstock is often a by-product, a residue or waste product of other processes without the competition of arable land. One of such feedstock is sugarcane bagasse. Biochemical methane potential (BMP) test is generally used to determine the possible methane that can be obtained from feedstocks. This study, however,aims at optimizing the anaerobic digestion of sugarcane bagasse with cow dungin a BMP test and controlled at mesophilic temperature (35 ± 2). Biodigester labelled as 1A (containing only the inoculum) was used as the control for the experiment, biodigester 2A (with 1:1 feedstock to inoculum ratio), biodigester 1C (without purification but a 1:3 feedstock to inoculum ratio) and biodigester 1D (with purification after a 1:3 feedstock to inoculum ratio) were reported in this study. Methane production was measured for a retention time (days) of 21 days using a 1000ml Schott bottles as biodigesters in batch mode. Sugarcanebagassewas characterized in the batch reactor to enable the inoculum activity and the biogas volume reported during the 21 days. The highest yield of methane was found to be 78% whiles the cumulative average biogas yield was 167mlfor the 21 days. However, the use of chemical absorption techniques for carbon dioxide removal in anaerobic digestion for biogas production is recommended as a promising factor.