Investigation of Phasic Process of Biogas Yield by Measuring pH, ORP and Electrical Power Changes

Background & Aims of the Study: Studying the phasic process of the biogas yieldisrequired to optimize the design and operations; it also helps to lower energy productioncosts by decreasing the capital investment and operational costs. Here we determine thebiogas process by measuring pH, ORP, electrical power and make compatibility to thebiogas production trend.Materials and Methods: In this research, one 1150 ml single chamber reactor is used.Biogas production trend was precisely followed by a probable compatibleness with pH,Oxidation Reduction Potential (ORP), electrical Power at a temperature of 37+ 0.5˚C withthe substrate of cattle manure. The experiment was followed for 120 days approximately.Results: As a result, the phases of biogas yield could be determined by the measuring ofpH, ORP and its compatibility to gas production. In the reactor, hydrolytic, acetogenic andmethanogenic phases were occurred in the days 1-7, 8-16 and 17-104, respectively. Alsothe electrical power at first showed to be produced at high range but by increasing, theproduction of biogas decreased and then by decreasing the biogas production gradually, itincreased slightly.Conclusion: Our results indicated that the phases of biogas production can be separatedcompletely and by diffracting the phases, the efficiency of biogas production could beincreased.

Keywords:

biogas , process phases , pH , ORP , energyproduction , Iran