Assessment of Sustainable Biogas Production from Co-Digestion of Jatropha De-Oiled Cake and Cattle Dung Using Floating Drum Type Digester under Psychrophilic and Mesophilic Conditions

Abstract

Biodiesel is an emerging alternative fuel that is generally made from edible and non-edible oilseed crops. Jatropha curcus has a high potential for producing biodiesel, which yields 25–35% oil along with 75–65% solid byproduct, generally called a de-oiled cake. The present manuscript deals with the co-digestion of Jatropha de-oiled cake along with cattle dung (1:1 ratio) for biogas production in a floating-type biogas digester. The experimental study was carried out in a modified KVIC biogas plant of 6 cubic meter capacity for 60 days’ retention time under psychrophilic and mesophilic temperature conditions. During all the experiments, the total solid content of the slurry was maintained fixed at 10–12% by mixing 10 kg Jatropha de-oiled cake and 10 kg cattle dung with 80 kg water. The experimental results showed that the average specific biogas production of Jatropha de-oiled cake and cattle dung slurry was observed to be 0.216 m3/kg TS, 0.252 m3/kg VS and 0.287 m3/kg TS, 0.335 m3/kg VS, respectively, under the aforementioned conditions. Moreover, the biogas methane concentration was observed to be 62.33% to 69.16% under mesophilic temperature conditions compared to the psychrophilic temperature conditions, 65.21% to 69.15%, respectively. Furthermore, the average total volatile solids mass removal efficiency of feeding material in the abovementioned process was 7% higher under mesophilic temperature conditions than psychrophilic temperature conditions. Additionally, the results indicated that a total 588.8 kg of input volatile solids produced a total of 7306.56 MJ/m3 and 5177.88 MJ/m3 energy in 60 days under psychrophilic and mesophilic temperature conditions. On the basis of the results, it is concluded that Jatropha de-oiled cake may be a superior solution for improving biogas quality and composition as well as a value-added product, i.e., organic manure.