(478e) Anaerobic Digestion Technology:The Energy,Environment and Health of Developing Nations

Anaerobic digestion is one of the most cost effective and established technologies available for managing organic wastes for energy production,environmental management and pathogen reduction. In developing countries such as Nigeria, the application of this technology at household level as a method for gas generation and safe organic waste management has not been adequately studied. In light of the above, a pilot scale digester was designed for the production of Biogas which at the same time manages waste and reduced pathogens through anaerobic digestion process. The pilot scale digester was 10 litres and manages 9 litres of waste.The digester was fed with different types of waste:Cattle manure, Chicken litter, Rumen of cattle and Water hyacinth. After some weeks, the wastes produced Biogas, reduced pathogens and reduced the amount of wastes in the environment. A prototype digester was later designed and constructed which can accommodate more waste and produced more biogas. The prototype digester is a 5m³ underground fixed dome biodigester made of concrete and  was designed, constructed and used for digesting cattle dung and water hyacinth. The digester was operated by mixing two parts of cattle dung (900kg) and one part of chopped water hyacinth (100kg) in 2,000 liters of water for two weeks following standard procedures. The gas produced was collected and piped to a kitchen for household use. It was also observed that there was reduction in pathogens and sanitization of the environment through waste management. This study shows that anaerobic digestion can be maximized for waste reduction, energy production,pathogen reduction and conversion of green house gases into usable forms.