Methane Generation from Human, Animal, and Agricultural Wastes

This report is devoted to the development of an alternative energy re-source suitable for individual or village use in a rural environment. An ideal resource is one that is local in origin and can produce energy useful for this purpose depending only on local materials and labor. Unlike present rural energy generation (primarily heat from burning), an ideal system should involve a fuel that can be utilized for different kinds of work. The ideal fuel resource should be easily accumulated and stored to provide energy for heating, lighting, small-scale electric power generation, and power for engines as needed. Moreover, where possible, it should also provide more energy than is now obtained from the same materials. Rural areas usually have large supplies of material-crop residues and animal wastes- theoretically suitable for conversion into a usable source of energy. The process that appears to hold the greatest immediate potential for utilization of these materials as sources of fuel is anaerobic fermentation.