Summary
Quantitative studies on the biomethanation processes using a different biomass (goat dung, cow dung, buffalo dung, piggery waste, poultry waste and sewage) alone or in combination have been made. The dung samples have been found to be an efficient producer of biogas at a 1:2 dilution. Better yields of biogas are obtained in combination with other biomasses rather than when used alone. Judicious mixing of biomasses, however, is important. Competitive biomethanation of a biomass by other biomasses as a source for a wild population of microbes has been studied in vials using a cross-inoculation technique, i.e. using inoculum of one biomass on different sterile biomasses. The results show that the microbes are very specific and usually non-adaptive. Each inoculum outclasses others in using its natural biomass for methanation but reacts poorly when inoculated to other alien biomasses. Buffalo dung is to some extent adaptive in nature.
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Reference
Kasali, G.B. (1990) Solid-state refuse methanogenic fermentation: control and promotion by water addition.Letters in Applied Microbiology,11(1), 22–6.
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Professor S.C. Lahiri is the senior author of this paper and he is ex-Head of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Kalyani where Nilanjan Chakravorty is a research fellow. Dr G.M. Sarkar is a senior lecturer in the Department of Botany at Ranaghat College, Ranaghat, Nadia, West Bengal, India.
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Chakravorty, N., Sarkar, G.M. & Lahiri, S.C. Competitive biomethanation using substrates in combination and by cross inoculation. Environmentalist 16, 111–115 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01325102
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01325102