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Converts waste into nutrient rich manure, cooking fuel and electricity in bio gas unit
Bio Gas units are boon for Indian farmers not only for cooking fuel/electricity but it is the ideal cost effective source for nutrient rich manure in the form of slurry. These days when slowly farmers are becoming aware of the hazards of chemical based farming inputs they need more natural manures. Although market is flooded with organic bio-fertilizers it hurts the pocket badly. Hence the solution is install a bio gas and get a consistent supply of natural manure.
Dr. S Shamsundar, Director, NIE-Centre for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technologies (NIE-CREST)
shares the details on small scale bio gas plants, types of slurry and importance of doing laboratory test of slurry etc. Excerpts:
An integrated farm generated mixed waste that can be processed to manure through mini bio gas plants. A mini bio gas plant processes 100 kg waste per day. The land area required is 50 square meter. The plant consists of main digester, gas holder, slurry tank, gas flow pipe line, moisture trap
systems, slurry pump, crusher, bio-gas burner. It produces on an average 6 meter cube bio gas/day that is equivalent to 2.4 kg LPG. Through this plant monthly biogas generated is 180 meter cube equivalent to 72 kg LPG (3.79 cylinders).
The plant produces 200 kg wet slurry every day. The slurry either can be sprayed on the crops through drip irrigation. The slurry aka natural manure obtained is excellent for farming. It nourishes the soil with essential nutrients, improves water retention capacity and soil aeration. It also boosts root growth and inhibits weed seed germination to the best of possibility. By and large there are three types of slurry viz. liquid, semi dry and dry. The liquid/wet slurry is alkaline in nature having 8-9 pH value. Usually the nitrogen content is 1.8%. It is best to use the slurry in this form as it gets absorbed by the soil and plant roots much faster than the other two variants of bio gas slurry manure.
Semi dry slurry/manure is second best form for crops. The pH value reduces to 7 and it becomes neutral to alkaline. Lastly the dry form though gets some micro-nutrients but nitrogen decreases. On an average 200 kg wet slurry when sun dried becomes 10 kg dry manure, it lose the nutrients as well.
However, it is strongly recommended to get the slurry tested in the laboratory to check on the nutrient content precisely NPK and other nutrients. If potash is less then it needs to be supplemented additionally in order to ensure the crop get a balance feed of manure as required.
If the plant is set up for cow dung based unit then even poultry or goat dung can also be added in it. The manure obtained is certainly rich in important minerals as needed for the plant growth yet it needs to be tested to ensure it has all the nutrients required by the crop. It is vital to know the nutrient content in the slurry before applying it in the fields.
Bio gas plant is best to be installed in all APMC market that easily generate 3-4 ton of vegetable and fruit waste. “The plant can produce many kg of chemical free manure from waste along with enormous quantity of electricity/cooking gas. The cooking fuel produced can be filled in cylinders to be supplied to the restaurants. It is quite similar to LPG. We at National Institute of Engineering, Mysore specialize in bio gas projects.
NIE-Centre for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technologies (NIE-CREST) is catering the society by providing consultancy and service on renewable and sustainable technologies to meet most of the energy needs locally.
(As told to Mamatha S R)
Contact details:
NIE-Centre for Renewable Energy & Sustainable Technologies
The National Institute of Engineering, Mysore-570008, India
Phone: +91-0821-4250502/4004914
Email: niecrest@gmail.com, niecrest@nie.ac.in
Web: www.nie.ac.in/crest , www.niecrest.in
Bio Gas units are boon for Indian farmers not only for cooking fuel/electricity but it is the ideal cost effective source for nutrient rich manure in the form of slurry. These days when slowly farmers are becoming aware of the hazards of chemical based farming inputs they need more natural manures. Although market is flooded with organic bio-fertilizers it hurts the pocket badly. Hence the solution is install a bio gas and get a consistent supply of natural manure.
Dr. S Shamsundar, Director, NIE-Centre for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technologies (NIE-CREST)
shares the details on small scale bio gas plants, types of slurry and importance of doing laboratory test of slurry etc. Excerpts:
An integrated farm generated mixed waste that can be processed to manure through mini bio gas plants. A mini bio gas plant processes 100 kg waste per day. The land area required is 50 square meter. The plant consists of main digester, gas holder, slurry tank, gas flow pipe line, moisture trap
systems, slurry pump, crusher, bio-gas burner. It produces on an average 6 meter cube bio gas/day that is equivalent to 2.4 kg LPG. Through this plant monthly biogas generated is 180 meter cube equivalent to 72 kg LPG (3.79 cylinders).
The plant produces 200 kg wet slurry every day. The slurry either can be sprayed on the crops through drip irrigation. The slurry aka natural manure obtained is excellent for farming. It nourishes the soil with essential nutrients, improves water retention capacity and soil aeration. It also boosts root growth and inhibits weed seed germination to the best of possibility. By and large there are three types of slurry viz. liquid, semi dry and dry. The liquid/wet slurry is alkaline in nature having 8-9 pH value. Usually the nitrogen content is 1.8%. It is best to use the slurry in this form as it gets absorbed by the soil and plant roots much faster than the other two variants of bio gas slurry manure.
Semi dry slurry/manure is second best form for crops. The pH value reduces to 7 and it becomes neutral to alkaline. Lastly the dry form though gets some micro-nutrients but nitrogen decreases. On an average 200 kg wet slurry when sun dried becomes 10 kg dry manure, it lose the nutrients as well.
However, it is strongly recommended to get the slurry tested in the laboratory to check on the nutrient content precisely NPK and other nutrients. If potash is less then it needs to be supplemented additionally in order to ensure the crop get a balance feed of manure as required.
If the plant is set up for cow dung based unit then even poultry or goat dung can also be added in it. The manure obtained is certainly rich in important minerals as needed for the plant growth yet it needs to be tested to ensure it has all the nutrients required by the crop. It is vital to know the nutrient content in the slurry before applying it in the fields.
Bio gas plant is best to be installed in all APMC market that easily generate 3-4 ton of vegetable and fruit waste. “The plant can produce many kg of chemical free manure from waste along with enormous quantity of electricity/cooking gas. The cooking fuel produced can be filled in cylinders to be supplied to the restaurants. It is quite similar to LPG. We at National Institute of Engineering, Mysore specialize in bio gas projects.
NIE-Centre for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technologies (NIE-CREST) is catering the society by providing consultancy and service on renewable and sustainable technologies to meet most of the energy needs locally.
(As told to Mamatha S R)
Contact details:
NIE-Centre for Renewable Energy & Sustainable Technologies
The National Institute of Engineering, Mysore-570008, India
Phone: +91-0821-4250502/4004914
Email: niecrest@gmail.com, niecrest@nie.ac.in
Web: www.nie.ac.in/crest , www.niecrest.in
