BIOGAS POTENTIAL - A CASE OF RURAL MAHARASHTRA

Author Co- Author

Mr. PRAVIN H. JAWARKAR Mr.SAVIN KHANGAR
Final year, Mech engg. Final year, Mech engg
Anuradha Engg College Chikhli, Anuradha Engg College Chikhli,.
Dist Buldhana Dist Buldhana
Email- raaz_praja@rediffmail.com Email-skhangar@gmail.com

1. Abstract
India has a large number of remote small villages that lack in the electricity, and
probability of connecting them with the high voltage gridlines in near future is very poor due
to financial and technical constraints. The main electrical load in these villages is domestic.
In this paper a study has been presented for sustainable development of renewable energy
source to fulfill the energy demand of four villages. These villages namely are Sawargaon,
Muradpur, Yewta and Malshemba located in Vidharbha region in Buldhana district. In this
villages the cattle dung, biomass are available in large quantity. Using these sources
electricity can be generated to fulfill the daily requirement. It has one more advantage
which is disposal of waste.
Key words- biogas potential, cost of energy of biogas

2. Introduction
Increasing demand of energy and negative impact of fossil fuel on the environment
has emphasized the need of harnessing energy for renewable sources. These sources can
create a significant impact in generation of grid electricity, as we see from the progress
made in wind power, biomass power and biogas power in last few years. The per capita
consumption of electricity in India during the year 2004-2005 was 606-kw/yr[1].The ministry
of power, power government of India has set on objective of providing “Power for all by the
year 2012”. This will entail electrification of all villages by 2007 and of all households by
2012.The infrastructure would need the availability of assured and reliable power at
affordable price through reliable and adequate generation, transmission and distribution
facilities [2,3]. The present generating capacity of the country is about 124280 MW only.
The peak energy shortage is about 12.5%. The share of renewable energy is about 4.9%
only with 6190MW. This shortage of electricity in India can be met by biogas, biomass
gasification Biogas is the outcome of anaerobic digestion of bio-degradable materials, and
is a mixture of gases such as methane, carbon-dioxide and a very small amount of
hydrogen sulphide and nitrogen. Of these, only methane is inflammable [4].
The components of biogas are –
Sr.No Substances Symbol Percentage
01 Methane CH4 50 - 70
02 Carbon Dioxide CO2 30 - 40
03 Hydrogen H2 5 - 10
04 Nitrogen N2 1-2
05 Water vapour H2O 0.3
06 Hydrogen sulphide H2S -

sBiogas generation is a process widely occurring in nature and can be described as the
biological process in which biomass or organic matter, in the absence of oxygen, is
converted into methane and carbon dioxide in digester. It is characterized by low nutrient
requirement and high degree of waste stabilization process, where biogas is one of the two
useful end products, the other being, enriched organic manual in the form of digested
slurry. It is essentially a three stage process. This three stage are:

a)Hydrolysis
b)Acidification
c) Methane Generation

Stage I : Hydrolysis

The waste materials of plant and animal origins consist mainly of carbohydrates, lipids,
proteins and inorganic materials. Large molecular complex substances are solubilized into
simpler ones with the help of extra cellular enzyme released by the bacteria. This stage is
also known as polymer-breakdown-stage. For example, the cellulose consisting of
polymerized glucose is broken down to dimeric, and then to monomeric sugar molecules
(glucose) by cellulolytic bacteria.

Stage II: Acidification

The monomer such as glucose that is produced in stage 1 is fermented under anaerobic
condition into various acids with the help of enzymes produced by the acid forming
bacteria. At this stage, the acid-forming bacteria break down molecules of six atoms of
carbon (glucose) into molecules of less atoms of carbon (acids) which are in a more
reduced state than glucose. The principal acids produced in this process are acetic acid,
prop ionic acid, butyric acid and ethanol.

Stage III: Methanization

The principal acids produced in stage 2 are processed by methanogenic bacteria to

produce methane. The reaction that takes place in the process of methane production is
called Methanization and is expressed by the following equations.

CH3COOH CH4 CO2

==> +
Acetic acid Methane Carbon dioxide

2CH3CH2OH CO2 CH4 2CH3COOH

+ ==> +
Ethanol Carbon dioxide Methane Acetic acid

CO2 4H2 CH4 2H2O

+ ==> +
Carbon dioxide Hydrogen Methane Water

The above equations show that there are many products, by-products and intermediate
products in the process of digestion of inputs in an anaerobic condition before the final
product (methane) is produced.

3. Methodology used to find biogas potential of rural area

Buldhana district located in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra state is visited
personally for the data collection. The main energy resources in Buldhana district are
traditional. Four villages named as Muradpur, Yewta, Sawargaon Dukare and Malshemba
from Fuels, mainly fuel wood, agricultural residue and dung. Preliminary investigation were
conducted in 4 villages i.e. for house holds and agriculture energy needs such as energy
resources availability accessibility, technological supports and local Cooperation or support
by visiting the villages to choose the region for investigation. The detailed energy survey
conducted for secondary and primary data. The secondary data is collected from
respective government offices, from pat-warieand is used to prepare framework for the
primary survey .the energy needs were estimated for various households and agricultural
end uses Such as: cooking, pumping, heating, lighting and appliances. During the initial
survey period, it is observed that many houses in the village are using pumps for pumping
end use

4. Biogas potential
The household, cattle’s and biogas produced per day are given in hectare wise in
following table -

Sr.No Village name No of No. of cattle Cow dong Biogas

households m³
01 Sawargaon 301 1029 9261 771.75
02 Muradpur 266 555 4995 416.25
03 Yewta 188 730 6570 547.50
04 Malshemba 181 729 6561 546.75

5. Application of biogas
The principal uses of biogas are for cooking, lighting and power generation:
5.1 Cooking
This is the direct use of biogas
1. Clean: does not make cooking vessel, clothes or kitchen dirty.
2. Fast: produces immediate heat
3. Healthy: does not produce smoke, irritation to eyes and lungs.
4. Efficient: If power stoves are used (60%) about 02.8 to 0.42 m3 of gas is required
per person per day.

5.2 Lightning
Lighting is justifiable only if electricity is not available, as it consumes gas significantly and
regular attention is required to keep the lamps burning. One mantle lamp of 100 candle
power capacity requires 0.11 to 0.15 m3 gas per hour. This is equivalent to a 40 Watt
electric light bulb

5.3 Engine for motive power and electricity generation using dual fuel generating
set
Biogas is an excellent fuel for both petrol and diesel engines. Petrol engines can be
run on a low percent biogas. In diesel engines, a little diesel fuel is required to ignite the
gas mixture for the normal running of the engine. The percentage of saving of diesel fuel is
75 to 80.Dual fuel engines require about 0.6 to 0.7m3 Biogas per hour per Kilowatt. The
engines adopted to run on biogas can be utilized for pumping irrigation water, generating
electricity etc. The gas can be efficiently used to produce electricity. To generate 1 KWH
electricity, about 0.7 m3. gas is required, this would be sufficient for 16 or 17 electric bulbs
each of 60 Watts to burn for one hour.

6. Different type of biogas plant

Different biogas plant with cubic capacity are given below -

(a) KVIC Floating Drum Type Biogas Plants having 1 to 10 m3

digester made of

Bricks or stones.
(b) KVIC Type Biogas Plants with Ferro cement digester 1 to 10 m3
(c) KVIC Type Biogas Plants with Fiber Glass Reinforced 1 to 10 m3
Plastic (FRP) Gas holder
(d) Deenbandhu Model 1 to 6 m3

(i) Brick masonry

(ii) In Ferro cement with in-situ technique

(e) Pre-fabricated RCC fixed dome model 2 & 3 m3
(f) 'Flexi' model Bag digester type plant made of 1 to 6 m3
rubberized nylon fabric manufactured by Swastik
Rubber Products Ltd., Pune.

Size of plants, requirement of cattle dung and estimated cost

Size of plant Quantity of cattle dung No. of cattle Estimated cost*

required daily heads required

1 cubic meters 25 kg 2-3 Rs.7,000/-

2 cubic meters 50 kg 4-6 Rs.9,000/-
3 cubic meters 75 kg 7-9 Rs.10,500/-
4 cubic meters 100 kg 10-12 Rs.12,500/-

7. Cost of energy of biogas

Sr.no Village name 75% converted to Total gas Total energy

useful biogas produced m³ per day
01 SAWARGAON 6946 578.83 2720501 kcal
02 MURADPUR 3746 312.16 1467152kcal
03 YEWTA 4928 410.66 1930102kcal
04 MALSHEMBA 4936 411.33 1933251 kcal
05 TOTAL 20556 1713 8051006 kcal

The 12 kg of cattle dung produces 1m3 of biogas with Calorific value of biogas is 4700-6000
kcal/m3 [5]
Total energy per day = 8051006 k/cal = 8.051×109 cal
 = 9.361×106 kWh
Assuming 33 % efficiency, the total energy generated will be
= 3.089×106 kWh
Annual energy generation = 3.089×106×0.09×365
= 101.47×106 kWh

The plant coast of 60 m³ capacity has been taken as Indian Rs 302500/ plant as per
prevailing market rates, which also cost of diesel generating set [6].

Plant cost = 302500×N

Where N = no. of biogas plant.

No. of biogas plant =total biogas produced/capacity of single

Plant
= 1713/60
N = 28
The cost of fuel (duel fuel mode) =5.75 Rs/kwh

{Considering cost of diesel=4.50/kwh&dung = 1.25/kwh}

Therefore, the unit cost of energy will be given by expression [6].

[(302500 × N) × 0.17] + [annual generation × cost of fuel]
Unit cost of energy =
annua lg eneration
[(302500 × 208 × 0.17] + [101.47 × 10 6 × 5.75]
Cost of energy =
101.47 × 10 6
cost of energy = 5.75 /kwh

8. Conclusion
In India, most of the population lives in villages and there main occupation is farms.
The main source of energy is the electricity which is derived from fossil fuels like diesel,
petrol, coal. The prices of these fuel rising enormously and they will vanish in next few
years. Due to economical and technical constraints most of the villages suffering from
shortage of electricity called load shading and some of villages till not electrified. Therefore
the solution to this problem is to use the non conventional energy sources for generation of
electricity like biogas, biomass, and solar photovoltaic cell. Out of them biogas is easily
available. Also the price of electricity generated from biogas is cheaper than conventional
sources and it comes out to 5.75 per kWh. The two more benefit is no problem of disposal
of waste and next is, produced slurry can be used as fertilizer.

References
[1] <http://.powermin.nic.in>, Ministry of power, Govt. of India, 2006
[2] <http://www.mnes.nic.in>, Ministry of non conventional energy source, Govt.of India
[3] Annual report, 2004-2005. Ministry of non conventional energy source, Govt.of India,
New Delhi
[4] <http://www.meda.com> Maharashtra Energy Development Agency – MEDA
[5] <www.indiasolar.com/cal-value.html>. [6]
Das Prashant Kumar, energy modeling for off grid electrification of cluster of villages, M
Tech dissertation, AHEC.IIT Roorkee, India, 2005.p.90-2