biogas - the availibility , cost-effectiveness , enviroment friendly or not ?

Question

please , i need to get the answers as soon as i can . thank you !

Answer 1

Bio-gas, defined as natural gas produced as a waste product from the degradation of organic matter, is an environmental problem.
It is never pure methane but methane is the primary byproduct that can be converted into an energy source.
You often see torches installed at landfill type waste disposal sites. They burn the gas created by the decomposition of the waste burried there, creating an open flame. Those torches are use to break down the methane and other contaminents into less harmful byproducts. The heat energy created is wasted by that method.
The gas can be compressed to higher pressures, excess moisture removed, and some other contaminents may be filtered out to produce a gas with qualities adequate to burn to drive generators and produce electricity.
This is a common practice in Europe and India.
The waste product replaces the need to provide natural gas from wells, thereby reducing the polution that is produced by obtaining gas from BOTH sources and wasting the one source.
With current technology, the cost of power generation from bio-gas supplies is higher than the cost of just burning natural gas form wells. The reasons are several. Mainly, other chemical contaminents in bio-gas sources are very corrosive and expensive methods are required to clean it up or build compressor systems that tolerate the powerful and toxic acids. The worst contaminent is hydrogen sulfide (H2S). When hot, moist and under pressure, it will destroy most stainless steels. It is a real killer. A very small ammount in the air, if inhaled, will soon produce death. Filtering it out is essential.
In India, they commonly use cow manure to produce bio-gas.
The manure from ONE cow is adequat to supply the energy needs of the average home.
Their use of energy is considerably less than what we use here in the U.S., but the principle is the same.
There are LARGE landfills here in the U.S. that do use the gas being produced to generate electricity. On a large scale it makes more economic sense.
Some are large enough to produce power for up to 500,000 homes.
I manufacture small compressors used for the purpose of compressing the gas. At his time our smallest will provide gas to drive a turbine and alternator for production of only 80 to 100 KW of power. That could easily be used to convert just a portion of the waste produced by a small farm into enough to operate the farm and sell extra to the utility company. The downside is the overall cost of installation and maintenance is higher than the value of the electricity produced.
In the U.S., the cost of power is much lower than it is for most of the world, thanks to good old American technology and efficiency.
Until the cost of energy climbs to meet that paid by the rest of the world, I'm affraid the use of the technology will not be common.

Answer 2

Biogas would be cheap and environment friendly. Almost anything could be made into biogas, used cooking oil, water, LPG...but an engine should also be made to make the biogas suitable for clean emission. Are you working on a research assignment?