Browsing by Author "Zerihun Desalegn Dana"

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    Investigating the Biogas Production Potential of Grass Hay Co-digested with Cattle Dung
    (Hawassa University College of Agriculture, 2022) Zerihun Desalegn Dana
    An alternative source of renewable energy can be offered from anaerobic digestion of organic materials since bio-methane has a potential in replacing fossil fuels in both heat and power generation, thus contributing to mitigate the emissions of greenhouse gases. For the reasonsjustified as easy availability, smooth digestibility, and easy technology acquisition, the anaerobic digesters in developing world mostly rely on cattle dung as feedstock. However, the declining trend of the cattle size holding at household levelcoupled with wastage of energy rich fodder (grass silage) when feeding out call for a bio-digester systems co-digestingcattle dung with grass silage. In this regard, co-digestion of the cattle dung with wastage of fodder could be an interesting remedy for meeting both the availability of sufficient biogas and waste management. In this study, biogas and methane yields of cattle dung alone, 50% cattle dung with 50% grass hay, and 75% cattle dung with 25% grass hay were measured and compared using in anaerobic batch digesters.The experiment was carried out in a laboratory scale batch assay at mesophilic temperature (37±2 o C) for 38 days, samples were characterized in terms of total solid (TS), volatile solid (VS), power of hydrogen (pH), total nitrogen and carbon to nitrogen ratio (C:N) as per the existing standards and biogas produced was characterized using biogas analyzer. From the dry matter of the substrate, specific biogas yields of 273.3, 318.6 and 296.4 mLN/g oDMwas obtained from cattle dung alone, 50% cattle dung with 50% grass hay, and 75% cattle dung with 25% grass hay respectively while specific methane yields were 165, 211 and 170.8 mLNCH4/goDMrespectively. Moreover, methane concentrations of 60, 66 and 58% were recorded for the above treatments.Therefore, optimum co-digestion of cattle dung with grass hay resulted inmore biogas and methane yields than mono digestion of cattle dung in terms of dry matter substrateand cattle dung can be co-digested with grass hay at dry matter ratio of 1:1 for yielding the highest biogas yields of 318.6mLN/goDM.