<div>Dear All,</div>
<div>Dr. Soham Pandya, the Director of Centre of Science for Villages, told us that the biogas generating system being demonstrated at his Institute was meant for using the dung of a single cow. One accumulates the dung for 6 months, and then loads all of it at once into the biogas digester, as a one-time feedstock. An Indian cow would produce daily about 6 kg dung. Therefore, accumulation of 180 days' produce explains the1000 kg that goes into the digester all at once. The biogas emanating from the digester is stored by him in a moving drum type gas holder, which floats on water. He has made this arrangement firstly to be able to deliver the gas to an electricity generator under a constant pressure, and secondly to know how much gas is produced daily.<br>
</div>
<div>My own explanation of this phenomenon is as follows: I assume that some of the micro-organisms in the alimentary canal of herbivorous animals have the capacity to digest lignin. I also assume that normally their number is quite low, but in a system, in which only lignin is left after a certain period of time, the lignin decomposing organisms are the only ones that can survive and multiply. Therefore, from this point onwards, it is the lignin that keeps the biogas production going. The lignin digesting organisms must be rather slow in digesting lignin, because it takes them about 4 to 5 months to digest the lignin left in the system. </div>
<div>Yours</div>
<div>A.D.Karve </div>
<div class="gmail_quote"> </div>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Oct 26, 2010 at 9:55 AM, David <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:david@h4c.org">david@h4c.org</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote style="BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; PADDING-LEFT: 1ex" class="gmail_quote">
<div text="#000000" bgcolor="#ffffff"><font face="Georgia"><br>Friends,<br></font><br><br>On 10/25/2010 1:28 PM, Markus Schlattmann wrote:
<blockquote type="cite">I still don't believe in those 540 m³ from 1000 kg dung....</blockquote><br>A sensible analysis. Maybe the key to the conundrum is the statement:<br><br>
<blockquote type="cite">...the biogas plant in Wardha... accepts 1000 kg cattle dung as a one-time load and produces daily 3 cubic meter biogas continuously over a period of 180 days...</blockquote><br>It is well known that batch digestion does not produce the same amount of biogas every day. Obviously it takes some time for the ecology of the digester to get established (during which time, of course, gas production is low), and it is surely something approaching a law of biology that the more digestible components of the substrate will be used up first, and then some of the more recalcitrant materials will-- eventually-- be digested. The succession of these stages offers a well-known curve, which is either bell-shaped, if it plots daily production, or a long S (ogee) curve if we are plotting cumulative production.<br>
<br>In sum, I have no doubt that biogas is produced, and that for a period of time production is good. Thus I would accept that the reported plants produce well for a time, but not that they produce the same amount every day, continuously for six months. But surely the statement as quoted has to do with genuine enthusiasm, and should not be taken as a rigorous mathematical description. <br>
<br><br>While my search turned up a number of references to the organization in Wardha in connection with biogas, none provided any reference to these batch digesters, unless they are very large clay pots, as one reference mentions. It would be salutary to have some literature on the subject, if any has been produced.<br>
<br><br><br>
<div>-- <br>
<div><span style="FONT-SIZE: 110%">David William House<br></span>
<div style="PADDING-LEFT: 3em; FONT-SIZE: 80%">"The Complete Biogas Handbook" <code><a href="http://www.completebiogas.com/" target="_blank">www.completebiogas.com</a></code><br><em>Vahid Biogas</em>, an alternative energy consultancy <code><a href="http://www.vahidbiogas.com/" target="_blank">www.vahidbiogas.com</a><br>
<br></code></div>
<div style="PADDING-LEFT: 2em">"Make no search for water. But find thirst,<br>And water from the very ground will burst."
<div style="PADDING-LEFT: 2em; FONT-SIZE: 80%">(Rumi, a Persian mystic poet, quoted in <em>Delight of Hearts</em>, p. 77) <br><br><a href="http://bahai.us/" target="_blank">http://bahai.us/</a></div></div></div></div></div>
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<br>for more information about digestion, see<br>Beginner's Guide to Biogas<br><a href="http://www.adelaide.edu.au/biogas/" target="_blank">http://www.adelaide.edu.au/biogas/</a><br>and the Biogas Wiki <a href="http://biogas.wikispaces.com/" target="_blank">http://biogas.wikispaces.com/</a><br>
<br><br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>***<br>Dr. A.D. Karve<br>President, Appropriate Rural Technology Institute (ARTI)<br><br>*Please change my email address in your records to: <a href="mailto:adkarve@gmail.com">adkarve@gmail.com</a> *<br>
<br><br><br>