The work on the following projects earlier approved under the policy guidelines of the Ministry under the Research, Design, Development and Demonstration policy/guidelines of the Ministry in Biogas Technology Sector continued during the year:-

1.     “Development & Performance evaluation of a 3 KW biogas based power generation system utilizing Lignocellular Biomass”, at IIT-Guwahati. Under this project, a 5 HP gasoline engine’s operating parameters have been optimized for modifying a gasoline SI engine into 100% biogas fuelled SI engine. 16 m³ of biogas produced per day from lignocellulosic feed stock materials mainly cow dung, rice straw, duck weed and switch grass and a 3 kWe biogas power generation unit integrated with solar assistance backup system has been successfully installed and maintained by IIT Guwahati at Auaniati Satara, North Guwahati, Assam under this project. A center for demonstrating the potential of power generation by using raw biogas have been successfully established and this is becoming a training and knowledge center for local entrepreneurs and dairy farms to gather technical information for generating Off-grid power. All the objectives of the assigned project are achieved and the final report of the project completion has been received.

2.     “Development of Hybrid-High rate bio-methanation reactor using locally available media for treating waste water and solid waste” at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu) has been completed. Under this project, three lab scale hybrid reactors fabricated with acrylic sheet one of which served as control and the other two reactors with different packed media. The stability of the reactors attained with affluent pH of 7 to 7.5 and the biogas production observed 250-300 ml in each reactor. The performance evaluation of high rate reactor and hybrid high rate reactor with community wastewater was completed and HRT optimized. The Project Completion Report has been submitted.

3.     In order to provide a sustainable solution for avoidance of in–field burning of paddy straw stubble in northern Indian states, a research project was awarded by MNRE entitled “Development of suitable pre-treatment system for paddy straw disintegration for biogas generation leading towards commercialization of technology” to the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi entitled “Development of suitable pre-treatment system for paddy straw disintegration for biogas generation leading towards commercialization of technology” by Centre for Rural Development and Technology, IIT, Delhi. In the project a laboratory scale hydrothermal reactor was developed for pre-treatment of paddy straw at different temperature and reactor loading rates. Further, a field scale hydrothermal reactor having 50 L capacity was fabricated for performing field scale experiment for performance evaluation of the model. The detailed analysis of energy consumption of the hydrothermal pre-treatment process by the reactor used in the study has been done. Further plan of work is to reduce energy demand in the hydrothermal pre-treatment process of paddy straw, experiments on loading of more than 20% TS will be studied in details for energy consumption as well as biogas production potential in larger size of anaerobic reactors. The biggest advantage of hydrothermal pre-treatment is high reduction in hydraulic retention time required for biogas production, which is 20–25 day only instead of somewhere 100 days for untreated paddy straw.