All You Need To Know About Biogas

Ever heard of the term Biogas?

It’s a biofuel that comes out of the process of anaerobic decomposition. And this occurs when there is no oxygen. After the decomposition of organic matter, a mixture of gases is released. These are primarily carbon dioxide and methane.

Animal manure, food wastes, crop residue, and wastewater are a few organic items used to make Biogas. And the result is a bunch of benefits that humanity can’t deny.

So before we move on to the benefits of Biogas, let’s view the process of production of Biogas.

How Does The Biogas System Work?

Here is how the biogas system works:

Step 1 – Organic Material

Organic materials such as animal manure, food scraps, wastewater biosolids, restaurant grease, and organic bioproducts are the feedstock or input for the system. A few organic materials will digest more quickly than the others.

Step 2 – The Digester

The anaerobic digester is a system that has airtight tanks. These tanks can be used for warming organic material and mixing. Microorganisms in the process break down organic material over 2-4 weeks, producing Biogas and digestate.

Step 3a – Biogas

Biogas contains mainly carbon dioxide and methane. Other than this, it has water vapor and a few other trace compounds, i.e., siloxanes.

Step 3b – Digested Material aka Digestate

The digesters make liquid and solid digestate. This contains many valuable nutrients such as phosphorus, nitrogen, potassium, and carbon dioxide. The result is renewable natural gas.

Now that you know how the biogas system works let’s take a look at the benefits of Biogas.

Benefits Of Biogas

Biogas has economic, waste treatment, environmental, and energy-related benefits.

1.    Economic Benefits

• The process of biogas production uses mankind’s force thus creating jobs for the people. The jobs can be temporary, construction-related, or even permanent.
• Turns a costly item such as waste treatment into a process that generates revenue opportunities.
• It operates in conjunction with composting operations.
• It enhances the rural infrastructure, thus diversifying the income streams of that area.
• The digestate that this system makes can replace bedding purchases and synthetic fertilizer.

2.    Waste Treatment Benefits

• It’s a process that deals with natural waste treatment.
• It matures technology.
• It consists of a smaller physical footprint as compared to composting.
• The process decreases the volume of waste for land application, transport vs. not utilizing the digestion.
• Biogas uses the process of decomposition very efficiently.
• It completely captures Biogas.
• It results in recycling and nutrient recovery.

3.    Environmental Benefits

• Biogas reduces the dramatic odor.
• It decreases pathogen levels.
• It reduces the emission of greenhouse gases.
• Biogas is a platform that decreases nutrient runoff.
• It also enhances crop yield.

4.    Energy Benefits

• It’s a net-energy production process.
• Biogas has a lot of existing biogas end-utilization applications. These include electric-only, heat-only, pipeline quality biomethane, combined heat and power, and transportation fuel.
• It’s a dispatchable/baseload energy source compared to intermittent solar and wind.
• It results in a distributed generation that means lower transportation/transmission costs and higher reliability.
• It directly replaces non-renewable fossil fuels.

Uses Of Biogas 

Next comes the use of biogas membrane, and here is how it is functional.

1.    Raw Biogas And Digestrate

Biogas is burned on-site to power boilers and heat buildings. It can even be used to heat the digester.

In addition to this, Biogas is used for combined power and heat operations. Additionally, it can be used for making electricity that is being used on-site or even sold in the electric grid.

On the other hand, digestate is a nutrient-rich liquid or solid material left after the digestion process. It has almost all the recycled nutrients present in the initial organic material. But it is available in a more ready form for soil building and plants.

The solid digestate is used in livestock bedding and composted with little processing. On the other hand, liquid digestate is easily spray-applied to the farms in fertilizers, thus reducing the need for synthetic fertilizers.

2.    Renewable Natural Gas

Biomethane, or renewable natural gas, is refined to eliminate water vapor, carbon dioxide, and other gases. This process is done to meet the industry standards of natural gas.

Renewable natural gas is added to existing natural gas and then utilized interchangeably with regular natural gas. This natural gas provides electricity, used in commercial processes such as cooking and heating.

3. Compressed Natural Gas And Liquefied Natural Gas

Like the usual natural gas, RNG is also used in vehicles as fuel once it is changed to liquefied natural gas (LNG) or compressed natural gas (CNG). Thus playing a massive role in the transportation process.

Final Word!

The whole article touches upon the making, benefits, and uses of Biogas. We hope the research in this article helps you understand the concept of biogas clearly.