Abstract:
Biogas is a naturally occurring, environmentally friendly fuel. It is mainly made up of a mixture
of methane and carbon dioxide that is produced naturally when organic materials degrade in
anaerobic conditions, such as animal, agricultural, domestic, and industrial waste. Anaerobic
digestion is a waste treatment and energy generation technology that is widely used. In an
airtight environment, such as anaerobic digesters, this natural process occurs. Biogas was
introduced many years ago, but because Ethiopians rely on agriculture for 85 percent of their
revenue, it did not expand throughout the country. This is due to a lack of understanding, as well
as water, and other related difficulties.
This thesis paper aims to improve biogas yield and make it suitable for farmers by replacing
water with human urine because biogas was not suitable in areas where water was scarce, adding
iron oxide nanoparticles prepared without toxic chemical reactions and easily produced in mass
and suitable for farmers to produce it, and mixing. Having designed mechanical agitation system
that does not require an electrical source by adapting it to the digester type used to make it
airtight after mixing the sludge inside the digester and making it simple.
After preparing iron oxide nanoparticles using an electrolysis procedure and adding 200mg/l, the
sludge was well prepared and mixed with cow dung and human urine. Once daily digester
feeding was maintained throughout the experimental test time, mixing was also maintained once
a day, PH was measured and it was found to be within the safe limit for anaerobic bacteria
development, after 75 days the biogas was started to burn.
After having the burning of biogas the next step was identifying biogas elemental concentration
by using methane sensor on computer controlled biogas process unit setup which is available in
Bahir Dar university energy center and the result was 77.4% methane concentration was
detected. So the way this paper followed was fruitful and working by replacing water 100% with
human urine, producing iron oxide without any toxic chemical reactions which is also suitable
for our farmers and without any thermal insulation and temperature controlling mechanism then
the retention time was started after 75 days.
Key words: Biogas, Iron oxide Nanoparticle, Electrolysis, Human Urine, Mechanical Agitation