Biogas production from cow dung using laboratory scale digester as potential tool for abattoir waste management

Abstract

The main challenge of the present world is to harness energy source which is environment friendly and ecologically balanced because the use of fossil fuels has led to global climate change, environmental degradation, and human health problems. This has forced the world to search for another alternate energy source, such as biogas. Biogas typically refers to a gas produced by the breakdown of organic matter in the absence of oxygen. Cow dung as a renewable source of energy supply has been proven to be very efficient. This work is focused on production of biogas using cow dung as a means of abattoir waste management. A laboratory scale digester was constructed using three 750ml capacity plastic water bottles with slurry concentration of 1500g cow dung per 3000cm3 distilled water over a retention time of three weeks. The biogas production started on the fourth day of fermentation and followed an increasing trend. Reaching its peak on the seventeenth day before a gradual fall in production rate. The average weekly production of biogas are; day1-7 (17.33cm3), day 8-14 (99.00cm3), day 15-21(172.33cm3). The result obtained from this study also indicates that Bacillus species were the most common bacteria isolated