Determination of Biochemical Methane Potential Under Mesophilic Conditions and Realistic Energy Estimation on Industrial Scale

The aim of this study was to determine the Biochemical Methane Potential (BMP) of some of the raw materials mainly used in the Biogas Plant: chicken manure, cow manure, chopped maize straw, vinasse 17 brix, beet tail, and wheat grain (wheat starch) under laboratory conditions. During the experimental study, the dry matter and volatile solid contents of the raw materials were calculated and the amounts added to the reactors as inoculum solution were determined. The reactors were operated under mesophilic conditions by monitoring their temperatures during the 30-day operating period. The BMP where the experimental study was carried out consists of six reactors, CO2 and H2S absorption units, and a methane gas measurement unit for the released methane gas. During the experimental study, wheat starch was used as the reference material and the inoculum solution fed to the reactors was used as the test solution. In the study where methane gas outputs were determined, the value reached for wheat starch was 363.15 Nml CH4/gVS, for chicken manure it was 260.83 Nml CH4/gVS, for cow manure it was 156.08 Nml CH4/gVS and for chopped straw it was 177.42 Nml CH4/gVS. In addition, in order to determine the methane gas output value in the BMP device, vines were studied as a sugar factory waste, and the methane gas output value was determined as 372.57 Nml CH4/gVS. The study was carried out by taking into account the daily degradation rates of each raw material and calculating the degradation rates as percentages from the first day to the last day. In the 30-day BMP analysis based on the daily degradation of each feedstock in anaerobic digestion, it was seen that the gross energy obtained from real biogas reactors was realized at 94%, showing a very close estimate. In addition to theoretical values, it is thought that analyzing a wide range of wastes in the laboratory environment will shed more light on biogas installation feasibility studies. Since the hydraulic retention time (the number of days the material remains in the digester) of real biogas digesters is 28 days, this period is taken as the basis.