Biogas is a renewable source of energy that belongs to the category of biofuels. It's predominantly a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide, and it's produced through anaerobic digestion, that is the bacterial fermentation of organic material.
Biogas is made in a biogas digester, and is a clean burning fuel (similar to LPG) once it has been cleaned up, with the big difference that you can make yourself. You can't make LPG, which is a fossil fuel and not renewable. Once the LPG has all been used up it will have gone for good!
Biogas is often produced from animal and agricultural wastes, and should not be made from food crops. There is no need to make it from food crops anyway, because there are a huge number of sources of organic waste which would otherwise just be left to rot away or go to landfill.
It is used directly for lighting, for producing heat, and as a fuel source for fuel cells. Biogas can be cleaned and upgraded to natural gas standards, when it becomes bio-methane. It can be compressed, the same way as natural gas is compressed to CNG, and used to power motor vehicles.
It can be made in all sizes of digester designs from a home food scraps digester to a huge egg shaped digester which is used to process sewage sludge at the biggest of sewage works which serve half a large city or more.
When made in sufficent quantities in large digesters and upgraded to biomethane, it can then be injected into a gas grid. So, you may be using purified biogas in your gas stove or central heating alerady, especially if you live in the UK. Such gas will be a good supplement to the green power from wind and solar power, and the green district heating (called CHP) from the otherwise unused heat from the jackets of the generators in power stations.
The biogas will displace GHG emissions from kerosene and fuel wood that are currently used for cooking. It will also displace GHG emissions from cattle manure that is currently dumped in pits near the household. It is considered to be a renewable resource because its production-and-use cycle is continuous, and when done very efficiently generates no net carbon dioxide.
There are many home and community digesters, but, the largest volume of produced globally biogas will, by 2020, originate from farm biogas and from large co-digestion biogas plants, integrated into commercial farming, and waste food food-processing anaerobic digestion plants. Unlike liquid biofuels, biogas does not compete with food, as it does not require dedicated crops and can use non-edible parts of plants.
Running parallel to this process, an artisan sector for the manufacturing and repairing of the equipment that utilizes biogas emerging. This provides skilled jobs for the local community. Jobs in which the workers can be proud of what they are doing.
With the technological advancements in biogas which are moving the process forward into an era of far higher eficiency and reduced costs, installing an AD plant will be more justifiable as a profit making system. The only thing to suffer a potential disappearance as a result should be landfill, and everyone will be delighted with that!
The solid and liquid "digestate" which is the output from the anaerobic digester is a wonderful fertiliser, with improved characteristics to manure. Both fertiliser and fuel wood are increasingly expensive in the country, and biogas reduces the demand for wood fuel. This is a potentially important future to help reduce the cost of firewood for those that need it. At the same time the depletion of forests for firewood should slow down, or be reversed.
Biogas has a lot of potential. Nevertheless, it has also one natural element that can be easily forgotten; as the biogas production is a natural, not an artificial process. That is that it needs to be controlled by trained experts to ensure optimum reiability and gas yield.
Accordingly, along with natural gas, biogas may be considered as a bridge fuel for the twentieth century, enabling the transition to a low-carbon energy economy, currently playing a key role in the emerging market for renewable energy. In fact, biogas may well represent one of our most important weapons in the fight against climate change.
Home biogas is highly efficient as it is used where it is made! Even in commercial applications the delivery of biogas can be often be done without causing any transport emissions at all when it is supplied to the landfill fleet operator's vehicles such as the waste collection trucks which operate from the same site as the biogas plant, or landfill. In addition to lower predicted upfront cost than nuclear power, home biogas does not require a grid-tie or any type of energy storage, as energy is stored in gas form and used on-demand when needed.
Biogas does require treatment or 'scrubbing' to refine it for before it can be used as a fuel for normal engines. Carbon dioxide (up to 20%), and hydrogen sulphide in small quantities are removed this way simply by passing the raw biogas through water. The carbon dioxide, and sometimes this sulphur as well, once removed from biogas can itself be sold profitably for a myriad of uses.
Biogas is made in a biogas digester, and is a clean burning fuel (similar to LPG) once it has been cleaned up, with the big difference that you can make yourself. You can't make LPG, which is a fossil fuel and not renewable. Once the LPG has all been used up it will have gone for good!
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| Biogas Defined to Answer "What is Biogas?" |
Biogas is often produced from animal and agricultural wastes, and should not be made from food crops. There is no need to make it from food crops anyway, because there are a huge number of sources of organic waste which would otherwise just be left to rot away or go to landfill.
It is used directly for lighting, for producing heat, and as a fuel source for fuel cells. Biogas can be cleaned and upgraded to natural gas standards, when it becomes bio-methane. It can be compressed, the same way as natural gas is compressed to CNG, and used to power motor vehicles.
It can be made in all sizes of digester designs from a home food scraps digester to a huge egg shaped digester which is used to process sewage sludge at the biggest of sewage works which serve half a large city or more.
When made in sufficent quantities in large digesters and upgraded to biomethane, it can then be injected into a gas grid. So, you may be using purified biogas in your gas stove or central heating alerady, especially if you live in the UK. Such gas will be a good supplement to the green power from wind and solar power, and the green district heating (called CHP) from the otherwise unused heat from the jackets of the generators in power stations.
The biogas will displace GHG emissions from kerosene and fuel wood that are currently used for cooking. It will also displace GHG emissions from cattle manure that is currently dumped in pits near the household. It is considered to be a renewable resource because its production-and-use cycle is continuous, and when done very efficiently generates no net carbon dioxide.
There are many home and community digesters, but, the largest volume of produced globally biogas will, by 2020, originate from farm biogas and from large co-digestion biogas plants, integrated into commercial farming, and waste food food-processing anaerobic digestion plants. Unlike liquid biofuels, biogas does not compete with food, as it does not require dedicated crops and can use non-edible parts of plants.
Running parallel to this process, an artisan sector for the manufacturing and repairing of the equipment that utilizes biogas emerging. This provides skilled jobs for the local community. Jobs in which the workers can be proud of what they are doing.
With the technological advancements in biogas which are moving the process forward into an era of far higher eficiency and reduced costs, installing an AD plant will be more justifiable as a profit making system. The only thing to suffer a potential disappearance as a result should be landfill, and everyone will be delighted with that!
The solid and liquid "digestate" which is the output from the anaerobic digester is a wonderful fertiliser, with improved characteristics to manure. Both fertiliser and fuel wood are increasingly expensive in the country, and biogas reduces the demand for wood fuel. This is a potentially important future to help reduce the cost of firewood for those that need it. At the same time the depletion of forests for firewood should slow down, or be reversed.
Biogas has a lot of potential. Nevertheless, it has also one natural element that can be easily forgotten; as the biogas production is a natural, not an artificial process. That is that it needs to be controlled by trained experts to ensure optimum reiability and gas yield.
Accordingly, along with natural gas, biogas may be considered as a bridge fuel for the twentieth century, enabling the transition to a low-carbon energy economy, currently playing a key role in the emerging market for renewable energy. In fact, biogas may well represent one of our most important weapons in the fight against climate change.
Home biogas is highly efficient as it is used where it is made! Even in commercial applications the delivery of biogas can be often be done without causing any transport emissions at all when it is supplied to the landfill fleet operator's vehicles such as the waste collection trucks which operate from the same site as the biogas plant, or landfill. In addition to lower predicted upfront cost than nuclear power, home biogas does not require a grid-tie or any type of energy storage, as energy is stored in gas form and used on-demand when needed.
Biogas does require treatment or 'scrubbing' to refine it for before it can be used as a fuel for normal engines. Carbon dioxide (up to 20%), and hydrogen sulphide in small quantities are removed this way simply by passing the raw biogas through water. The carbon dioxide, and sometimes this sulphur as well, once removed from biogas can itself be sold profitably for a myriad of uses.
