The Complete Biogas Handbook

Table of Contents

 

A revised and third edition of The Complete Biogas Handbook has now been printed in a limited run, and this website offers five Appendices (of the 19) and three Chapters (of the 51) from the book, downloadable for free. (See the table of contents page.)

As recently as late 2006, copies of this book (then out-of-print) were selling on Amazon for up to $140. That price reflected the quality of the resources provided in the book, and encouraged the author and his family to offer the few remaining copies of the second edition for sale. The reaction was a little surprising. All available copies were promptly sold, entirely without advertising or public notification of any kind— therefore encouraging us to revise and republish it.

But perhaps we should not have been surprised. Consider the following excerpts from reviews of the first and second editions of the book:

Reviews

…Lots of the numbers you need are here, and many hard-won tips are shown from often bitter experience.… The book’s main value is in showing how to do things that have been glossed over or ignored in other books, such as burning methane in a gasoline engine. If biogas interests you enough to consider making a generator, this book is your next assignment.

J. Baldwin, The Next Whole Earth Catalog

This readable book provides a comprehensive survey of the theory and practice of biogas production. The author discusses the scientific terms used, the substances (such as manure and plant matter) which can produce biogas, and various types of biogas generators.

Mother Earth News

House… has written a thorough introduction not only to biogas plants but to the ancillary problems such as gas utilization, engine/generator interfacing, refrigeration, and similar topics.

Alternative Sources of Energy

…bringing together material of importance that has hitherto been spread far and wide.

Steve Smyser, Organic Gardening

…And consider a recent spontaneous communication from someone previously unknown to us who purchased one of the few remaining second edition copies:

This note is to let you know that my husband finds the Biogas book that we ordered most helpful and informative. It is the best I have found on the subject so far in my search. Thank you.  

  Yours truly,

[a recent purchaser]

Sample Excerpts

Almost 30 substrates— digestible plant wastes, manure and so on— are discussed and known research about them is presented in considerable detail:

Buswell [says]… “the present estimate is that from 5 to 10 cubic feet of gas can be obtained per pound of cornstalks, and that the rate of production will be from ½ to 1 cubic foot of gas per day per cubic foot of tank volume. Taking the lower figure, a ton of cornstalks would furnish gas for 400 people for one day, allowing 25 cubic feet per capita per day. From the data given by Weber for yields from regions where 30 percent of the land is planted to corn, an area with an 8-mile radius will produce enough cornstalks to supply a city of 80,000 inhabitants continuously. In other words, the cornstalks from one acre will produce the gas for one person for a year.”

Chapter 17: Plant Substrates, pg. 74 [Emphasis added]

…Due to the fact that the pig is such a useful animal, providing bacon, sausage, ham, and pickled pig’s knuckles, there are a great many pigs in a great many countries. Biogas research has occurred using pig manure as a substrate because of the economic importance and the large population of pigs. Therefore, information specifically about pig manure is available whereas information about llamas, peacocks, gerbils, elephants, gnus, large herds of wild voles (and the like) is totally absent.

Chapter 16: Manure Substrates, pg. 69

This book offers extensive information about all aspects of biogas production, and details some small-scale designs. For example, the design for a simple, low-cost test generator is provided, and other novel design ideas based in solid research are offered:

…Ghosh, Conrad, and Klass (1975) report that in what they referred to as a “two phase digestion system,” the second phase (or methane module in our terms) produced 8.9 volumes of biogas, per unit volume of generator per day. They further report that the gas was 70% methane. If you achieve this kind of production from the two-barrel methane module of the proposed hybrid generator, it would produce about 3,800 liters of biogas per day, or nearly 2,700 liters of methane per day (respectively, 135 and 95 cubic feet). In terms of the energy in that much methane, 2.16 x 10⁴ Calories, or 8.5 x 10⁴ Btu. That’s no small potatoes from two little 55-gallon drums…

Chapter 49: Hybrid Generator, pg. 206

…If you are considering using the test generator for its intended purpose— testing— then fill up a barrel with your substrate, arrange to keep it warm, and try to establish a culture of methane-producing bacteria. The procedure is covered generally in Chapter 31: Startup, p. 168, and cultures are discussed in Chapter 30: Cultures, p. 165.

Chapter 47: Test Generator, pg. 199

Information not easily found elsewhere is clearly presented in this book. For example, the small scale use of human wastes to produce biogas is thoroughly examined:

The American toilet gives us an end product which is neither suitable for use in a small-scale generator, nor safe to dispose of into the environment. Not only will it fail to give us biogas, but it kills aquatic life and spreads disease.

One way out of this dilemma is to ignore the toilet and produce biogas using only kitchen wastes. Therefore access to the waste water from an existing sink (via modifications under the sink), or the addition of a special sink, used only for kitchen garbage, may be a better answer. (A garbage disposal, if carefully used to avoid introduction of excess water, is a definite plus.) Besides, for one or two people, the added biogas from toilet wastes will probably not amount to a great deal.

“But,” you may protest, “I want to make biogas from my food” (i.e., after it has been eaten). So be it. But not with an average toilet hooked into the system, or only with a great deal of well-shredded dry substrate in the bargain, if an average toilet is used.

Assuming you use your toilet, you will need a minimum of 200 liters of generator volume per flush per day (assumes a 10-day HRT), and you should add between 1 and 1.8 kilograms (2.2 to 4 pounds; TS weight) of well-shredded substrate materials (such as leaves or kitchen wastes) per flush— if you can.

In other words, minimum generator volume of ten times the toilet waste volume per day, plus added materials to bring the total solids up to between 5% and 9%…

Chapter 50: Home Wastes Generator, pg. 209

…One adult on an ordinary diet will produce from 100 to 250 grams of feces per day. On a vegetable diet, an adult will produce from 300 to 400 grams per day. (Respectively, 0.22 to 0.55, and 0.66 to 0.88 pounds per day.) Feces are usually neutral to slightly alkaline in pH, 24% to 27% TS (dry weight), with a C/N of 6 to 10, nitrogen 4% to 6% of TS, VS is 85% of TS. Normal values for urine are 1 to 1.6 liters volume per day, average pH 6.0, 4% to 6% TS, with a C/N of 0.8, nitrogen 15% to 18% of TS, VS is 72% of TS. (That’s 1.06 to 1.69 quarts volume produced daily.) Every liter of urine weighs about 1,020 grams. Every quart of urine weighs about 2.9 pounds.

Chapter 16: Manure Substrates, pg. 68

In sum…

…There is much, much more in this book, in its 51 chapters and 21 appendices. It also has 90 figures and almost 60 tables, an index and two tables of contents (one brief, one comprehensive) for ease of finding items. As well, it contains information about growing algae for producing biogas (Chapter 18), and some possibilities regarding biohydrogen (Appendix 2), which we are offering to you as some of the free Chapters and Appendices available on this web site.

See the brief Table of Contents, and see the complete list of free downloadable Chapters and Appendices, here…