Automation of bio-digester stirring system using locally available materials
Agricultural and Bioresources Engineering Department Federal University of Technology Owerri.
Research Article
Global Journal of Engineering and Technology Advances, 2020, 05(02), 005-013.
Article DOI: 10.30574/gjeta.2020.5.2.0082
Publication history:
Received on 01 October 2020; revised on 08 November 2020; accepted on 12 November 2020
Abstract:
An anaerobic bio-digester with electronically controlled stirring system was fabricated and tested using locally available materials. The experiment was conducted on a laboratory scale in Federal University of Technology Owerri. Cow dung obtained from an abattoir in Owerri and household biodegradable waste randomly collected from residential homes and eateries were used as the feedstock for this work. The feedstock was pre-fermented for a period of 10 days in an airtight bag before it was mixed with water in the ratio of 1:2 to form slurry that was fed into the digester. An Arduino system controlled timer with LED display screen was designed to control the on/off signal of a 2Hp electric motor powering the stirring arms. The programmable stirring timer device was set to run the electric motor for 30minutes at an interval of four hours to allow for even distribution of nutrients and microbes in the bio-digester. A control experiment was also carried out with non-automated stirring system. . It was observed that gas production in the control experiment reached its peak in fourteen days and the period was mired by fluctuating and less volume of gas production when compared to the main experiment where the gas production increased appreciably and steadily with maximum volume recorded on the tenth and eleventh day as contained in the results obtained. Model equations were generated for the two experiments and the wide variation in values of determinant factors (R2) in the two experiments is an indication that the automated stirring system with R2 = 0.97 performed better than the manually timed stirred trials with R2=0.88.
Keywords:
Automation; Bio-Digester; Stirring; Anaerobic; Biodegradable.
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Copyright © 2020 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article. This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Liscense 4.0