Study on Production of Biogas and Bioethanol from Millet Husk
A. Abba
Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School, Aliero, Nigeria.
U. Z. Faruq
Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, Nigeria.
U. A. Birnin-Yauri
Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, Nigeria.
M. B. Yarima
Department of Microbiology, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, Nigeria.
K. J. Umar *
Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, Nigeria.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
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.
Keywords: Biogas, bioethanol, millet husk, reducing sugars, acid hydrolysis fermentation