Biogas Compression and Storage System for Cooking Applications in Rural Households

Abstract, International Journal of Renewable Energy Research, 2016

A project is undertaken by the College of Engineering Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India to design and develop a biogas production, purification, compression and storage system suitable for the use as a cooking gas in rural households. The biogas is produced in a floating drum type digester by the anaerobic digestion of kitchen wastes and collected by an elastic balloon. A foot lever compressor is designed, which allows the users to stand and compress using foot lever and a valve system. The final prototype is able to compress the biogas to approximately 4bar in a 0.5m3 tank. In addition to the compressor, a container with silica gel is used for removal of water vapour from Biogas and there is also a fibre container with steel wool to act as a hydrogen sulfide scrubber in-line with the inlet of the biogas to the compression system. The result showed that the system could compress biogas into a container, 4 bar pressure and operating time of 30 min.

Keywords: Biogas, Bottling, Foot Compressor, Scrubbing