Biological Wastes 20 (1987)1209-215

A Note on Stimulation of Biogas Production from Cattle Dung by Addition of Charcoal

Sushil K u m a r , M. C. Jain & P. K. C h h o n k a r Division of Soil Scienceand AgriculturalChemistry,Indian AgriculturalResearchInstitute, New Delhi--110012, India (Received 4 June 1986; accepted 27 August 1986)

ABSTRACT Various forms of carbon were screened for their ability to stimulate biogas production in batch fermenters and the commercial charcoal which was found to be most efficient was tried in a semi-continuous anaerobic digester. The addition of 5% commercial charcoal to cow dung on a dry weight basis resulted in augmentation of gas production by 17% and 34"7% in batch and semi-continuous fermenters, respectively. Analysis of the microbial profile of the fermenters showed that fermenters with charcoal had a higher number o f both total anaerobic bacteria and cellulolytics. The decomposition of Volatile Solids increased from 30% to 34% and COD reduction from 55% to 69% on addition of charcoal to the semi-continuous digester. The Volatile Fatty Acid concentrations were similar and within the acceptable limits. Locallyproduced wood charcoal was as good as the commercial charcoal in batch digestions, but other forms of carbon were not as efficient.

INTRODUCTION Anaerobic digestion of cellulosic waste materials for the production of methane is not only relatively slow but also can have poor process stability. The bacterial activity involved in the process is primarily associated with particulate materials with much of it occurring on the surfaces of solid particles (Hobson, 1973). Therefore, attempts have been made in the past to stimulate the microbial activity by incorporating solid, inert materials in 209 Biological Wastes 0269-7483/87/$03.50 ElsevierApplied SciencePublishers Ltd, England, 1987. Printed in Great Britain

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Sushil Kumar, M. C. Jain, P. K. Chhonkar

anaerobic digesters (Barker, 1956). Activated carbon has a stimulatory effect on anaerobic digestion (Adams, 1976). Attempts were therefore made to enhance biogas production by adding charcoal in various forms to cattle dung used as feedstocks in batch and semi-continuous digesters. Digester performance parameters were monitored.

METHODS The batch and semi-continuous digesters were maintained at 35 ___IC. Powered charcoal (Darco G60) or other carbons were mixed with fresh dung by weight on a dry weight basis at different levels (see Tables) and made into a paste by adding an inoculum of 100ml of digested cow dung obtained from a Gobar Gas Plant, then diluted with water to make up 51itres of slurry containing 8% Total Solids. This was fermented anaerobically in 6.5-1itre capacity glass bottles as described earlier (Kumar & Biswas, 1982). Simultaneously, the same amount of slurry, prepared as above with Darco G60 charcoal, was placed in a semicontinuous digester (6.5 litres) designed in our laboratory (Jain & Kumar, 1986). Initially, the digesters were loaded with 5 litres of slurry with 8% Total Solids. Subsequently, 125ml of slurry with or without charcoal was introduced into the fermenters every day so as to give a 40-day retention time. Cow dung alone served as control in both systems. The gas was collected over saline water in graduated jars and its volume measured daily. Gas samples were analysed every 10 days using a gas chromatograph with a thermal conductivity detector. Aliquots of fresh and digested slurry samples were analysed at 10-day intervals over a period of 40 days for Total Solids, Volatile Solids, Chemical Oxygen Demand, pH and volatile acids by standard methods (APHA 1975). Total anaerobic bacteria were enumerated by the method of Maki (1954) and cellulose hydrolysing bacteria by the method of Mah & Susman (1967). All analyses were carried out in duplicate and the values reported are the mean values.

RESULTS A N D DISCUSSION
Batch fermentation

Periodic and total yields of biogas obtained from cowdung alone and treated with different concentrations of Darco G 60 charcoal are shown in Tables 1 and 2. These batch fermentations showed a 17% increase in gas production in the treatment receiving 5% powdered charcoal, but more than 5% did not

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TABLE 1

211

Periodic and Total Yields of Biogas (litres per kilogram dry weight of cow dung) Obtained from Cow Dung and its Admixtures with Darco G 60 Charcoal at Different Concentrations in Batch Digesters
Period (days) Cow dung alone Cow dung + 5% charcoal
64.54

Cow dung + 10~% charcoal

71.82

Cow dung + 15% charcoal

1-7 8-14 15-21 22-28 29-35 36-40 Total

44-10 46.20 45.08 32.62 18.90 6.58 193.48

59-08 53-06 25.48 17.92 7.00 227.08

65.52 52.08 22.68 12.60 5.88 230.58

68.88 63.28 50.54 19.60 17.50 8.68 228.48

c h a n g e gas p r o d u c t i o n . H o w e v e r , in trials in w h i c h a g r a n u l a r f o r m o f D a r c o G 60 c h a r c o a l w a s used t h e r e w a s n o significant increase in the gas p r o d u c e d . W i t h 1 % to 5 % p o w d e r e d D a r c o G 6 0 c h a r c o a l the increase in the gas p r o d u c t i o n w a s in p r o p o r t i o n to the c h a r c o a l c o n c e n t r a t i o n (Table 2). N o significant c h a n g e in the r a t e o f gas p r o d u c t i o n d u r i n g the first w e e k o f d i g e s t i o n was o b s e r v e d initially b u t the efficiency o f the digester w a s i m p r o v e d s u b s e q u e n t l y . T h e c u m u l a t i v e gas yields o v e r the t h i r d w e e k o f d i g e s t i o n a m o u n t e d to 85 % o f the t o t a l gas yields, a n d the gas c o m p o s i t i o n w a s 6 2 % m e t h a n e a n d 3 7 % c a r b o n dioxide. O t h e r e x p e r i m e n t s were

TABLE 2

Periodic and Total Yields of Biogas (litres per kilogram dry weight of cow dung) Obtained from Cow Dung and its Mixture with Darco G 60 Charcoal in Batch Digesters
Period (days) Cow dung Cow dung Cow dung Cow dung Cow dung control + 1% + 2% + 3% + 4% charcoal charcoal charcoal charcoal Cow dung +5% charcoal

1-7 8-14 15-21 22-28 29-35 36-40

70 64 34 16 13 9 206

71 65 37 15 13 7 208 0'97

71 70 35 15 12 9 212 2-9

82 69 40 15 12 7 225 9-2

85 69 43 21 11 4 233 13"0

95 68 42 16 12 8 241 17"0

Per cent increase over control

--

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TABLE 3 Periodic and Total Yields of Biogas (litres per kilogram dry weight) from Cow Dung Treated with Different Forms of Carbon (5% w/w) in Batch Digesters

Period (days)

Cow dung + wood charcoal a

49.70 39'95 22.90 18'95 14-70 13.10 10-80 10"60 180.70

Cow dung Cow dung + + graphite petroleum coke

43.15 42.75 21'25 12-25 11-95 11.00 10"60 10.10 163'05 41'35 40'35 23.80 11'35 11-80 10"35 9-35 9"20 157.55

Cow dung Cow dung Cow dung + + alone c a r b o n activated (control) black charcoal
37-70 39-95 23'95 14.45 11'50 10.30 9'55 8-35 155"75 22.25 23.46 43'89 37-20 14"15 13.95 12'85 10'25 178.00 42"10 35"30 17"75 17"50 14-60 9"90 9-15 9"15 155.45

1-7 8-14 15-21 22-28 29-35 36-42 43-49 50-56 Total

All the forms of carbon used were powdered. a Of local production.

conducted to see if higher efficiencies of gas production were achieved by using other easily available forms of carbon. Among these, powdered wood charcoal showed the maximum increase of 16% in biogas production (Table 3). Semi-continuous fermentation Since the majority of biogas plants run on semi-continuous feeding these studies were extended to a semi-continuous system using a laboratory horizontal digester described elsewhere (Jain & Kumar, 1986). The results (Table 4) showed that the biogas yields from cow dung mixed with Darco G 60 charcoal were higher than from cow dung alone. The average gas yield was 0.2 m 3 per kilogram dry weight fed per day from cow dung alone and 0"27 m 3 per kilogram dry weight fed per day in cow dung amended with charcoal (34-7% higher from cow dung mixed with charcoal). After 40 days, when no charcoal was added to the semi-continuous fermentation, the gas production remained the same. The increase in gas production caused by the addition of charcoal may be attributed to enhanced microbial activity in the digester contributed by growth of bacteria on the surface of the carbon particles (Adams, 1976). This is corroborated by the results of studies on microbial profiles of the digesters (Table 5) which showed that the slurry amended with charcoal had higher microbial numbers than the unamended slurry.

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TABLE 4 Average Daily Yields of Biogas Obtained from Cow Dung Alone and Cow Dung Treated with Darco G 60 Charcoal (5% w/w) in a Semi-continuous System

Period (days)

Gas production per day (litres per kilogram dry weight of cow dung fed per day) Cow dung alone Cow dung amended with charcoal
36"8 72"0 180-8 262-4 358"4 284-0 292-0 272.8 263.2 269'6 276.0 273'6

1-5 6-10 11-15 16-20 21-25 26-30 31-35 36-40 a 41-45 46-50 51-55 56-60

32-0 42"4 134-4 220"0 243"2 198"4 203"2 215"2 207"2 212"8 202"4 197.6

a No charcoal was added after 40 days.

The mean values of some digestion characteristics during fermentation are given in Table 6. The decomposition of Volatile Solids was 30% and 34% and COD reduction was 55% and 69% in the cow dung and cow dung mixed with charcoal, respectively. These values are in accordance with the gas production. The pH of the amended digestion was slightly higher than that of the cow dung alone. Volatile Fatty Acid concentrations were within the acceptable limits.
TABLE 5 Influence of Charcoal Addition of Total Anaerobic Bacteria and Cellulose Hydrolysing Bacteria ( x 104) in Semi-continuous Digester

Time of sampling (days)

Anaerobic bacteria Control without charcoal

117 106 147 176 546

Cellulose hydrolysing bacteria Control without charcoal

27"5 32-0 40"0 55"5 155.0

With charcoal

With charcoal

10 20 30 40
Total

151 132 160 197 640

35-5 52"0 76-0 56"0 219.5

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TABLE 6

Process Parameters During Fermentation of Cow Dung Alone (A) and Cow Dung Treated with Charcoal (B) in the Semi-continuous Digester
Days % VS degradation VFA (rag litre- 1) COD (mg litre- t) pH

A 0 10 20 30 40 -9'9 20'1 24"7 30-1

B -11-6 22"6 27"2 34"3

A 26 53 890 572 730

B 73 79 1019 660 571

A 88 500 69 000 43 200 41 600 39 600

B 92 000 70 500 36000 32 800 28 600

A 6"7 6"8 7"4 7"6 7-4

B 6-8 7"0 7'1 7"8 7'6

The addition of powdered charcoal to an anaerobic digester is most beneficial in removing the slowly biodegradable organic materials. The readily biodegradable compounds are not adsorbed on activated charcoal (Hutton, 1978). The higher production of biogas on addition of 5 % charcoal to cow dung suggests a useful method for increasing the efficiency of anaerobic digesters.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The authors are grateful to Dr N. N. Goswami, formerly Head o f the Division of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, for his keen interest in the work and encouragement and guidance. Thanks are also due to Shri V. Verma and Shri F. D. Ross for help in the laboratory work.

REFERENCES Adams, A. D. (1976). Powdered activated carbon improves anaerobic digestion. Water Sew. Works, July, 62-3. American Public Health Association (1975). Standard methods for the examination of water and waste water (14th edn). Barker, H. A. (1956). Bacterial fermentations, John Wiley & Sons, New York. Hobson, P. N. (1973). Microbiology of anaerobic treatment processes. Proceedings of Fundamental Microbiological Aspects of Waste Treatment Symposium, 375-6. Hutton, D. G. (1978). Combined powdered activated carbon-biological treatment. In: Carbon adsorption handbook (Cheremisinoff, Paul N. & Ellerbuch, Fred (Eds)), Ann Arbor Science Publishers Inc., Michigan 389-447.

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Jain, M. C. & Kumar, Sushil (1986). Semi-continuous laboratory digester for biogas studies, Research and Industry, 31(3), 203-5. Kumar, Sushil & Biswas, T. D. (1982). Biogas production from different animal excreta. Indian J. agric. Sci., 52(8), 513-20. Mah, R. A. & Susman, C. (1967). Microbiology of anaerobic sludge fermentation. I. Enumeration of the non-methanogenic anaerobic bacteria, Appl. Microbiology, 16, 358. Maki, L. R. (1954). Experiments in the microbiology of cellulose decomposition in municipal sewage, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, 20, 185.