[Digestion] Attachment to previous Article - More scientific based research and questions

[Anand Karve]

Dear Mr. Krishna,
thanks a lot for throwing light on the mystery of the Wardha biogas plant.
To be fair to Dr. Soham Pandya, I must say that he mentioned that it
was Chinese technology which he had modified to some extent.
Yours
A.D.Karve

On Wed, Oct 27, 2010 at 12:48 PM, Murali Krishna <bmkrishna6 at gmail.com>wrote:

> Dear Dr.Karve,
>
> I had been to Wardah and  visited the said digester at CSV,  two years
> back.  This digester was actually designed by Mr.Jianan Wang, a professor of
> Physics from China.  This digester is known as Puxin Biogas model.  It works
> on water Hydraulic Pressure. It is a mix of Deenabandu and Floating Drum.
> The size and weight of iron drum is bigger and heavier in floating drum
> model than Puxin digester.
> It is usually fed once in six months.  The feeding rate is normal.  It does
> not yield more gas than any other Indian digesters.  The digester's is
> designed for 40/50 days HRT and is fed once in six months.  Farmers of China
> fed this digester with waste grass clippings and dung/pig manure, etc.  They
> are emptied once in six months and spread on their agricultural fields.
> Since there are dry grass clippings and sufficient enough nitrogen  material
> is available (C:N ratio is maintained) and the quantity of feed stock is
> loaded for six months, the digester is giving 3 cubic meter gas every day
> without further feed.
>
> You w ere not properly appraised by the people at Wardah for they
> themselves are not sure of the feed rate and no study is being conducted.
> You must have observed theat at CSV they have a canteen on the premises and
> everyday kitchen waste is fed into the digester.  This they never  consider
> nor bring into  the notice  of anyoneav.  Similarly the same digesters which
> they have built at the restidential colony is connected to night soil
> regular feed source.
> The digester is 10 cube meter and it is giving only 3 cube meter gas.  As
> per the inventor in China's weather it will give 5 to 6 cube meter gas.  I
> had been exchanging correspondence with Mr.Jianan for more than two months
> during 2008-09 for designing 100 cube meter digester and go for 1 MW unit.
> As the cost is quite exhorbitant  and my customers does not want this
> model.  The advantage with this model is .....it is easy to empty and fill
> the digester.   This  digester can be used for continuous feeding also.  I
> have built this digester at Hyderabad and the mould was lent by CSV.
>
> This is a patented model for water hydraulic pressure and unfortunately the
> inventor's efforts are never acknowledged and many claim that it is their
> own invention.
>
> Regards,
>
> Murali Krishna.
>
>
> On Sun, Oct 24, 2010 at 12:13 AM, Anand Karve <adkarve at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Dear Dr. Martin,
>> I have just returned from a city called Wardha, where I attended a
>> workshop arranged jointly by the Research Councils of UK and the Department
>> of Science and Technology, Government of India. About 20 scientists each
>> from UK and India were invited to this meeting.
>> In the course of field visits organised during the workshop, Dr. Soham
>> Pandya, The Director of Centre of Science for Villages, an NGO in Wardha,
>> showed us an amazing biogas plant on his campus. This biogas plant accepts
>> about 1000 kg cattle dung as a one-time load and produces daily about 3
>> cubic meters of biogas, continuously over a period of about 180 days.  This
>> is not the only biogas plant constructed by him. Using funds from the
>> Department of Science and Technology, He has constructed a similar biogas
>> plant in another place called Hingoli, where a one-time load  of 1000 kg
>> dung yields biogas continuously for 6 months, to run an electricity
>> generator for daily 3 to 4 hours, to provide electric lighting to all the
>> houses in the village.  Officials of the Department of Science and
>> Technology vouched for the veracity of these claims. According to text book
>> knowledge, 1000 kg dung should have produced about 30,000 litres (or 30
>> cubic meters) biogas. But this particular biogas plant produces 540 cubic
>> meters of it.
>> Neither Dr. Pandya nor any other scientist could give a
>> scientific explanation to this phenomenally high yield of biogas. Dung of
>> Indian cattle consists mainly of lignin (from the veins and midribs of the
>> grass and leaves that they feed on) and micro-organisms. One has to assume
>> in this case, that there are microbes in the dung that feed on the lignin
>> and that the methanogens digested the lignin eating microbes.
>> Yours
>> A.D.Karve
>>
>>
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