PLUG-FLOW DIGESTERS FOR BIOGAS GENERATION FROM LEAF BIOMASS

The low, family lever availability of animal dung in rural Indian fami lies restricts the spread of biogas technology. This has warranted the design and development of novel biogas plants for other biomass feeds tocks. The plug-flow digesters discussed in this paper circumvent the problems associated with floating of biomass feedstocks and enable a s emi-continuous operation. The long term operation of such biogas plant s using a mixed green leaf biomass feedstock is reported along with it s design features. Results show that during long term operation, such biogas plants have the ability to produce up to 0.5 m(3) gas/m(3) reac tor/day (ambient conditions) at specific conversion rates ranging betw een 180 and 360 l biogas/kg TS (total solids) at a 35 day retention ti me. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.