Studies on biomethanation of pine needles
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Date
2015-08
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G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand)
Abstract
The energy requirement in rural sector of India is largely met through locally available biomass i.e. renewable source of energy such as burning of cattle dung cakes, crop residues, forest biomass such as leaves litter, twigs, fire wood etc. though, it has lower calorific value and produces unhealthy smokes. Uttarakhand is blessed with a dense natural forest with a variety of flora and fauna. Though it also have about 3.43 lakh ha of pine forest which produces about 20.58 lakh tonnes of dry pine needles (deciduous leaves of Pinus roxburghii) which is prone to wild forest fire if not judiciously managed. It can be used in gasifier for electricity generation, briquetting and biomethanation. Among which Biomethanation of biomass represents a better option for its efficient utilization and environmental protection. Anaerobic fermentation for production of biomethane is conventionally being performed at feed substrate -water ratio of 1:1 (by wt.).With this in view a study was initiated for biomethanation of reduced size and ground pine needles treated with NaOH, Lime, Urea, Trichodreama spp. and Psueudomonass spp. and their combinations from laboratory to field biogas plants. Studies were, therefor conducted to establish suitability of chopped pine needles in conventional cattle dung fed 0.5 m³ Pant Tarai and 2 m³ H.D.P.E floating drum biogas plant. The experiments reveal that 30 % of pine needle may be substituted for cattle dung without any adverse effect on process parameters such as pH, total alkalinity etc. Based upon the experimental results it was observed that a specific biogas yield of 0.630 m³/kg VS destroyed as compared to 0.634 m³/kg TS destroyed for conventional process during last fortnight of experiment. An increase in TS and VS reduction with 20.5 percent and 30.7 percent respectively was of observed for treated pine needles fed into biogas plant with average cumulative biogas yield of 27.6 m³/m³ dv till end of experiment. Further the reduction in C/N ratio and increase in N, P, K during course of digestion and feasibility to prepare handmade briquettes from outlet slurry can also promote its feasibility. Further studies on it conceded that it can save about 185 kg fire wood and 200 kg dry soil organic matter rich N, P, K if 50 % of digested slurry is utilized for briquettes and 50 % to replace FYM.
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