Before the new feedstock was applied at biogas power station “Luchki”, it has been tested in laboratorial biogas power unit, reproducing the biogas power station performance in small-scale.
“Biogas output level from sorghum is just 1.5 times less than maize silage biogas output level. It is a quite perspective result ”, - explained Larisa Goncharova, head of laboratorial biogas power unit at Belgorod Institute of alternative energy.
Biogas power station “Luchki” successfully processes all kinds of by-product from the agroindustrial complex – from manure to slaughterhouse waste. Nevertheless, for receiving a significant biogas output one should not only process the waste, but should also add feedstock of vegetable origin rich in organic compounds, to digesters. Traditionally, maize silage was used as vegetable feed, which is not an actual waste product. That’s why the search for its substitutes is one of the laboratorial biogas unit’s tasks.
New set of experiments in anaerobic fermentation of sorghum, maize silage, of new and last year’s harvest of sugar beet pulp (by- product of sugar beet processing) is conducting today at laboratorial biogas unit. Vegetable feedstock samples are fed monthly for to define how feedstock properties are changing during storage process and to correct the industrial biogas power feeding graph.