Biogas Power & Biogas Energy
Biogas is an energy source that is produced when organic products breakdown. Biogas is a type of fuel that can be made by the fermentation process or by the digestion process. Methane gas and carbon dioxide are two of the main types of gas produced by these methods. There are other types of biogas, such as wood gas, which is made primarily from wood. Carbon monoxide, hydrogen, nitrogen, and a bit of methane are gases that are emitted from the gasification of wood.
When oxygen is introduced to carbon monoxide, hydrogen, and methane, it oxidizes or combusts. This release of energy can be used as fuel. It is a low-cost, efficient way to provide heat in any country. This heat source can be used for warming a home or even for cooking. Compressing biogas in the same way as natural gas makes biogas an option for fueling motor vehicles. The United Kingdom has the ability to replace almost 20% of all vehicle fuel with renewable, inexpensive, biogas.
Since biogas is renewable, it can qualify for energy subsidies in various parts of the world. Biogas has many other advantages as well. For example, the use of biogas could reduce the effects of global warming. By simply producing methane biogas through the anaerobic digestion method, cow manure can produce electricity.
One cow can produce enough manure each day to create three-kilowatt hours of electricity. This is a little more than is needed to power a one hundred watt light bulb each day. Rather than letting manure decompose on its own, converting it to biogas can reduce global warming by four percent. Conserving the depleting fossil fuels is another benefit of biogas, as well as protecting forests, reducing air and water pollution, and overall improving the standard of living in many areas of the world.
Biogas production began with ancient Persians realizing that rotting vegetables could produce a flammable gas to generate power. In a leper colony Bombay in the 1850s, an anaerobic digestion plant was built to process sewage, and since the late 1890s, the UK has been using biogas for such purposes as lighting street lamps.
Europe has the most advanced development of biogas production facilities in the world. Almost all of the 12,000 worldwide vehicles powered by upgraded biogas are in Europe. The United States is only starting to take advantage of biogas power. Testing has been going on for a few years now on methane biogas from cow manure. Studies are showing that methane biogas could potentially reduce America's greenhouse gases by 4%. There are a few dairy farms that are utilizing anaerobic digesters to not only produce renewable electricity, but also to address typical dairy farm issues such as the manure smell.
China and India have used biogas technology on a widespread basis for many years, as it has been an established and proven technology in these areas. Programs of biogas production in Asia as well as Africa and other regions of Europe are being established as a way to provide clean energy for cooking and to cut down on air pollution.