Specified Evaluation of Livestock Manure Resources for Biogas Production (Case Study: Dairy Industries of Bushehr Province, Iran)

Considering the importance of animal waste obtained from livestock industries as the enormous raw substances for energy production, the present study was conducted to assess the biogas production potential from livestock manure in dairy industries of Bushehr province, Iran. Temperature is a critical parameter for anaerobic digestion since it influences both system heat requirements and methane production. So, a furthere objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of lowland and highland temperature regimes on the methane production from dairy digesters. Therefore, in this study, obtainable amount of biogas was determined by using data from industrial cattle farms in Bushehr. Then, the amount of the electricity that can be generated from biogas was performed. The findings of this study indicated that biogas potential of 1.97 million m3 year-1 could be produced from livestock manure in dairy industries of Bushehr which could provide an electricity generation of 3.55 million kWh year-1. Methane production under mesophilic temperature conditions could be several times higher than the methane production at psychrophilic and low temperatures. As a result, the highest methane yield was found at temperature of 33.9 °C. Under these condition, methane production potential was found as 2.4 million NL CH4 digester-1. Results showed that anaerobic treatment of manure has the beneficial outcomes of reducing environmental pollution through proper waste management, reduction of unpleasant odors and microbial pathogens with a sustainable production of energy source as biogas.