Study on Production of Biogas and Bioethanol from Millet Husk

Abstract

The potentiality of millet husk in production of biogas and bio-ethanol was investigated. Proximate analysis was carried out on the millet husk and the husk had the following proximate composition: ash (33.83±0.67%), moisture content (10±0.03%), organic matter (56.17%) and Carbon-Nitrogen ratio (42.31%). It was observed that, addition of cow dung improved the quality and quantity of biogas generated. The volume of biogas in seeded digester was found to be higher; it had total volume of 7333.33 cm3 and 5733.33 cm3 of pure methane against 5400 cm3 total volume and 4200 cm3 of pure methane, in unseeded digester. Different concentrations (1-5%) of sulphuric acid were used to determine the yield of total reducing sugars and ethanol when the sugar was fermented, the result reveals that 3% sulphuric acid concentration yielded higher percentage of reducing sugars (21.40%) while the highest volume of distillate of ethanol by fermentation of hydrolysate was obtained with 3% H2SO4 (21.7 cm3) with 0.70% purity. Based on cheap cost of production, easy production and use, biogas was found to be better than bio ethanol.