A biogas plant is a container of a slurry of bacteria and wet organic matter that produces methane and carbon dioxide. The methane-producing bacteria are anaerobic, i.e. they do not work when oxygen is present. A cow’s gut contains a population of bacteria that include anaerobic methanogens, so cattle dung is often used as feedstock or as a starter for the digestion of other types of organic material. Since these bacteria are adapted to a cow’s gut, they run best at 35°C (mesophylic), although some also work at 55°C (thermophyllic). In colder climates the container must be insulated and/or heated to maintain this temperature. The container must be gas tight to retain the gas as it is given off and also to exclude air.

 

Biogas technology has a long history, especially in countries such as China, India and Nepal. In UK, the rest of Europe and USA, it had a brief burst of interest in the early 1980s, but was seen as uneconomic, when the oil price dropped. Since the 1990s, there has been a strong revival of interest in Germany, followed by the Sweden Denmark and Austria. The UK has been very slow in following their lead, mainly because the technology is still seen as uneconomic. Germany and other European countries provided subsidised feed-in tariffs that allowed operators who generated electricity from renewable energy, such as biogas, to operate at commercially.

 

Biogas is a fuel gas that can be used in gas burners, for cooking and heating, or in internal (and external) combustion engines to give shaft power or to drive an electric generator.

 

Based on extensive experience of very successful biogas technology in Asia, Kingdom Bioenergy Ltd is developing a biogas plant design for the UK and European market.

Biogas Technology