I.

Anaerobic Digestion
For Biogas Production

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1.What is biogas?

• Biogas is a mixture of gases, primarily consisting of methane, carbon dioxide and

hydrogen sulphide, produced from raw materials such as agricultural waste,
manure, municipal waste, plant material, sewage, green waste and food waste. It is
a renewable energy source.
• Biogas can be burned directly for heat or be combusted in engine for electricity
production

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2.Anaerobic Digestion for Biogas Production

• Biogas is usually produced from anaerobic digestion of organic waste materials.

• The Anaerobic process can be divided into four main steps:

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2.1.Hydrolysis

• Initial, organic waste contain many large molecule compounds such as:
carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, and celluloses.
• All compounds are hydrolyzed to smaller molecule like: sugars, fatty acids, amino
acids, peptides, and small amount of acetic acid, hydrogen, carbon dioxide.

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2.1.Hydrolysis

• After hydrolyzed, the energy is redistributed :

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2.2.Acidogenesis

• Sugars, fatty acids, amino acids, and peptides are continue fermented by the
anaerobic bacteria to two main types of fatty acids:
• + Long-chain fatty acids (LCFAs) ( from lipids)
• + Volatile fatty acids (VFAs) such as propionic and butyric acids

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2.2.Acidogenesis

• Acidogenesis also produces a small amount of acetic acid, alcohol, hydrogen, and
carbon dioxide.
• After acidogenesis, 75% energy from initial material will redistributed into 10%
hydrogen, 35% in acetic acid and 30% VFAs.
Element’s energy Ratio (%)

Hydrogen 10

Acetic acid 35

VFAs 30

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2.3.Acetogenesis

• The VFAs from last steps are completely degraded into acid acetic, hydrogen, and
carbon dioxide during acetogenesis.

• After this steps, energy from VFAs redistributed into 17% acetic acid and 13% to
hydrogen.

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2.4.Methanogenesis

• This is the final step when both hydrogen and acetic acid are converted to
methane.
• -Hydrogen will reaction with carbon dioxide to from methane:

• -While acetic acid is degraded into methane by obligate acetate-utilizing anaerobic

bacteria.
•