Title: Enhanced biogas production from poultry litter by improving the carbon nitrogen ratio

Authors: Selvaraj Balaji; M. Sakthivel; S.A. Pasupathy; P. Sivakumar; K.K. Arun

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kumaraguru College of Technology, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu-641046, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Info Institute of Engineering and Technology, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu-641046, India ' Department of Mechatronics Engineering, Kumaraguru College of Technology, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu-641046, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, SNS College of Engineering, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu-641046, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kumaraguru College of Technology, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu-641046, India

Abstract: The production of biogas from the wastes is one of the proven and cost effective method to generate energy. There are various factors which affects the AD, which results in reduced biogas yield among that the low carbon nitrogen (C/N) ratio of poultry litter is a prime factor that affects the process adversely. In this research, the ammonia removal by air stripping method and co-digestion of poultry litter with water hyacinth is performed to increase the C/N. Samples of RPL, co-digested PL and co-digested air stripped PL are digested in batch type reactors at mesophilic conditions with pH of 6.8-7.2 for a HRT of 21 days. The C/N of the three samples were 6.86:1, 10.48:1 and 14.88:1 respectively. A 17% and 25% increase in biogas production is observed in digester 2 and 3 respectively due to the increase in C/N by co-digestion and air stripping respectively.

Keywords: carbon nitrogen ratio; air stripping; co-digestion; ammonia nitrogen; water hyacinth.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPQM.2018.093451

International Journal of Productivity and Quality Management, 2018 Vol.24 No.4, pp.520 - 530

Received: 09 Jan 2017
Accepted: 02 Apr 2017
Published online: 26 Jul 2018 *

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