Electricity Generation from Cow Dung Biogas

Abstract

Energy is one of the most important factors for accelerating economic development. Due to rapid industrialization and urbanization in Nigeria over the few decades, there is a huge pressure and ever increasing demand of Electrical energy, which has resulted in a concentrated need for finding some alternative sources of energy. Biomass power which is electricity produced from biomass fuel is a renewable energy source steadily gaining importance and leading the way for economic development. Biogas is obtained from biomass waste fermentation process. The paper reviews the potentials of biogas for power generation. A small-scale biogas generation system was designed and implemented. We successfully modified the internal combustion engine, which works smoothly without any sign of audible knocking during the entire experimentation. Comparatively, results show that 1.8kg of biogas runs for 127 minutes with a load capacity of 1400 watts while 1 liter of fuel runs on the power generating system with a load input of 1400 watt. 1 liter of fuel operated on the power generating system for a period of 42 minutes after which the system shutdown due to complete consumption of the available fuel. It was observed that as the load input increased, voltage dropped and current increased. Financially 1.8kg of biogas costs far less than 1 liter of fuel. Thus, the application of this technology on a large scale in the power sector has significant potentials of increasing the installed electricity capacity being generated in Nigeria. Synergistically, it can help in waste management as well as providing a long-term sustainable approach to energy self-sufficiency and economic development in Nigeria.

Keywords: Energy, Biomass, Biogas production, Biogas purification, Electricity generation.