Technology

What would be the best technology for producing electricity from cattle dung?

I am planning to start up a power plant of 1 MW. I have availability of Dung of 80 Tons per day. What would be the best technology to recover energy from such dung out of following technologies: 1.Anaerobic Digestion/Biomethanation 2.Pyrolysis/Gasification 3.Combustion/Incineration The technology should result in maximum energy in form of heat/electricity and overall operational and economic efficiency. Thanks and regards, Manthan.

Public Comments

1. Well, you'll have to do an analysis of each method and compare. Depending on your assumptions, any of these might work. For example, option 1 above doesn't mention how the methane would be used. It might cost a lot more to set up a fuel cell network, but it will be more efficient over the long haul than say driving an internal combustion engine with the methane. Hope that helps.
2. That's a tough call. I'm inclined to say option 1. In pyrolysis/gasification and in combustion, you would have to actively dry your fuel source, and if I recall, dung has a lot of moisture in it (upwards of 60% wt - compared to a good bituminous 15% wt). If you used passive drying techniques, you would have to wait a while, and biomethanation would be more applicable, assuming the time frames of passive drying and biomethanation are the same. If you burn the methane hot enough, you can put in a HRSG (heat recovery steam generator) on the back end of the gas turbine and get more power generated. The problem is the capital cost would be expensive.