Biogas to Electricity

Biogas Magazine | Edition 20 | 12

Biogas to Electricity

Aisin Biogas Power Generation System in India

Aisin Corporation, Japan (a Group company of Toyota) planned to launch Biogas Power Generation system for Grid & offGrid applications business in India. Currently, Aisin Automotive Haryana Pvt. Ltd. – AHL (a subsidary company of Aisin Corporation, Japan) is planning to provide a complete solution for Biogas Power generation system (Figure 1 - Digester, Desulphurizer, Generators,) by using cow dung (animal waste). In future, it will be possible for the system to connect with food waste & agricultural waste. Three years ago (Figure 2), AHL established a demo site (with cow dung) in Bangalore where the system has been continously generating electricity for the past 20,000 hours. With 1 cubic metre of Biogas, the gas engine generator – COREMO can produce 1.5 kW of electricity per hour. Extra Biogas can be utilized or sold for the cooking. The De- sulphurizer technology will remove H2s in the biogas to 0 ppm. In greenhouses, The CO2 from exhaust can be utilized for photosynthesis. The engine’s exhaust heat can be utilized to heat the digester during the winter and/or heat the water used for cleaning the dairy farm.

Salient Benefits of Biogas Power Generation System

● Availability of power for 24x7 (1.5Kw per hour per engine) ● Reduces pollution

● Reduces the time wasted gathering firewood for cooking.

● Reduces reliance on fossil fuels

● Save the environment (Reduces deforestation)

● Improves living standards in rural areas.

● Reduces global warming

● Produces good quality enriched manure to improve soil fertility

● Effective and convenient way for sanitary disposal of organic wastes (food, animals, plant)

● Improve the hygienic conditions

Demo site – Biogas Power Generation system at Bangalore

This particular demo site located at south-west of Bengaluru is the result of cohesive collaboration. The Biogas power generation project is the first of its kind in India to demonstrate a fully operational model of power generation from biogas using advanced and cutting-edge COREMO Gas engine generators.

While HQ imparts functional know-how and technological expertise, Sri Bhagyalakshmi Farms, which owns a dairy farm with more than 100 cows, provide daily consumables and local support.

Everyday cow dung is collected and transported to the Mixing Chamber. After being unloaded into the mixing chamber, cow manure is mixed with equal quantity of water. To ensure efficient and high-quality fermentation within the bio-digester, the substrate is thoroughly mixed to prevent lump formation.

Finally, undesirable elements such as hay straws are removed, prior to the material entering the inlet chamber. The mixture of cow dung and water enters the bio digester through the inlet chamber, where anaerobic fermentation occurs and biogas is produced. The digester installed at demo site is a Floating Dome type digester.

The digester's other side is the outlet chamber which holds the liquid slurry coming out of the digester after fermentation. The biogas contained in the digester’s upper dome flows through the blue pipes.

Layout of Aisin Demo site (Sri Bhagyalakshmi Farms, Kolur, Ramohalli (PO), Bangalore)

Periodically, any moisture that has accumulated in the biogas is extracted using a moisture trap. Two separate pipelines transport the biogas for electricity generation and cooking, respectively. The main pipeline transports biogas for the purpose of generating electricity, where it passes through a desulfurizer for the removal of of Hydrogen Sulphide in the form of Sulphur before being fed to the Biogas engine generators. The Biogas Generators, known as COREMO, are constructed using Japanese Technology and can generate electricity continuously 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The generated electricity is then supplied to a Main Supply Board, from which it is distributed to several dairy

farms. The generated electricity is used used in several dairy farm applications including dairy equipments, milking machines, controroom and lighting.

As a part of Thermal Application, the biogas is also distributed to the local population for daily cooking and heating. The bio-digester output is collected in the outlet chamber. This slurry is predominantly liquid. However, this liquid slurry is pumped into a Solid Liquid Separator (SLS) that separates the solid particles from liquid. And this solid compost is bagged and further used by farmers as a organic fertilizers. As a part

Biogas Magazine | Edition 20 | 14 of the R&D project, a control room has been established to monitor and evaluate critical technical parameters for the power generation.

Further

The Biogas Power Generation system is ideal for dairy farms with more than sixty heads of cattle. The users of Aisin’s system also receive Biogas for cooking and organic fertilizer for their crops, in addition to continuous electricity. The Biogas power generation system is Empowering

RURAL COMMUNITIES to be Self-sufficient & Self-sustainable for their Electricity

Needs. Additionally, it provides a cleaner technology by reducing carbon emissions into the atmosphere.

Dr. B. Vengatesan Senior Technical Advisor (R&D) Aisin Automotive Haryana pvt. ltd.

+91 7838447489 , + 91 7727077257

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