Biogas Generation from Animal Waste: A Case Study of Village Wazirpur

Fossil fuels dominate the energy sector, but their exhausting reserves and adverse effect on the environment has encouraged search for renewable resources. Animal waste is one such renewable resource which can be used for producing biogas by the process of anaerobic digestion. Several factors like temperature, pH value, moisture content, etc. affect biogas production. This paper proposes a biogas-producing system in village Wazirpur situated in Delhi NCR. This village is having 400 buffalos, and their dung can be collected efficiently and used for producing biogas. Biomass digester is automated with manual task only limited to putting dung in the collecting tank. Automated system is controlled by Mitsubishi Electric's FX5U programmable logic controller which mixes the dung with water, feeds to the digester, and optimizes the factors affecting biogas production. The proposed system produces 334.8 to 428 m3 biogas daily. This biogas is used as fuel for biogas genset, and the generation system is simulated in Homer in grid connected mode, giving 58,692 kWh energy annually. Net present cost and cost of energy are having negative values indicating the costs are recovered in project's lifetime.