Fuel gas production from animal residue part I. Technical perspective

The technology of fuel gas production by anaerobic digestion, which has been available for many years, has only recently been recognized as a potential alternate energy source. Until recently, the emphasis of this technology has been the treatment of waste materials to eliminate pollution rather than the economically feasible recovery of methane, one of the products of anaerobic digestion. An application which shows promise to furnish energy is the digestion of animal residues. Experiments reported in the literature have shown the technical feasibility of the use of this technology with animal residues, and several reports have been issued recently which discuss the economics of fuel gas production by anaerobic digestion of animal residues. The objective of this review is to develop a detailed technical perspective of the scope of the anaerobic digestion process and the problems and prospects for exploitation to produce methane from animal residues. It is concluded that the technology of anaerobic digestion and the economics of this technology make fuel gas production from selected animal residues meritorious for development.