Biogas As A Friendly Alternative Energy Environment (Part 1)

Energy is needed by all people in carrying out daily life. The commonly used energy source is fuel oil, but the supply is getting thinner. Rising world oil prices caused the price of fuel oil in the country to increase. The use of fuel oil causes global warming and environmental damage.

This condition is very apprehensive, especially the people of Indonesia is very dependent on fuel oil. This situation encourages people to develop alternative renewable energy sources to reduce dependence on fuel oil.

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Biogas is one solution to overcome the problem of limited energy sources. Development of the use of biogas as fuel oil substitute fuel is very suitable to be applied in rural areas or livestock business environment, especially biogas technology with raw materials of livestock manure. The technology to get one of these energy sources is a relatively simple technology.

Biogas

Biogas typically refers to a mixture of different gases produced by the breakdown of organic matter in the absence of oxygen. Biogas can be produced from raw materials such as agricultural waste, manure, municipal waste, plant material, sewage, green waste or food waste.Source

Biogas is an alternative source of energy produced by anaerobic activities or fermentation of organic materials including: human and animal waste, domestic waste (household), biodegradable waste in anaerobic conditions.
The composition of biogas can be seen in the Table below.

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Biogas energy content:

The calorific value of 1 cubic meter of biogas about 6000 watt hours is equivalent to half a liter of diesel oil. Therefore, biogas is suitable for use as an environmentally friendly alternative fuel as a substitute for cerosene, LPG, butane, coal, or other materials derived from fossils.

Biogas Raw Materials

Raw materials that are prospective to be developed as biogas raw materials in indonesia include organic waste, liquid waste, and animal waste.

Organic Trash

Broadly speaking, waste is divided into 3 types of inorganic, organic, and special waste. organic waste originates from plant and animal constituents derived from nature or produced from agricultural, fishery, household, industrial or other activities. examples of organic waste are kitchen waste, vegetable waste, fruit skin, rotten fruit, paper, fruits, leaves, straw, and husk. utilization of waste as a raw material of biogas production provides various advantages that help overcome the problem of waste pollution, help the provision of cheap and renewable energy sources, and help the provision of natural fertilizers.

Liquid waste

Liquid waste is waste disposal resulting from a process that is no longer used. Activities that generate liquid waste include industrial activities, households, livestock, and agriculture. Not all liquid waste can be utilized as raw material for biogas producers, only organic liquid waste can be used as biogas raw materials. Such liquid wastes include livestock urine, household wastewater, and industrial wastewater such as slaughterhouses.

Animal waste

As a raw material of biogas, the availability of animal waste in Indonesia is quite abundant. The animals are kept in large numbers on farms and kept individually small by households. Locations of livestock as well as Individuals who raise livestock are usually in rural areas, so the manufacture of biogas with livestock manure is suitable to be applied in rural areas.

Based on the estimation, a cow in one day can produce as much as 10-30 kg of dirt, a chicken produces 25 g / day, and an adult pig weighing 60-120 kg can produce 4.5 to 5.3 kg / day. Based on the results of existing research, it is known that every 10 kg of cattle grazes potentially produce 360 liters of biogas and 20 kg of adult pigs can produce 1,379 liters of biogas.

Next article : how to make biogas from livestock manure

References :

1. Biogas
2. Biogas-2
3. Sumber energi alternatif.
4. Infrastruktur pembangkit biogas