[Digestion] Woody Biomass digestion via compost

[adkarve]

About thirty years ago, I had visited an Institute by the name of National
Sugar Institute in the city of Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh, India), where I saw a
two phase fermentation technique. When I visited this Institute, I was more
interested in sugar than in methane, and it is likely that I missed
something or understood the process wrongly. The fermenters consisted of
several large brick-and-cement towers, which were operated one after the
other to give continuous supply of methane. Each tower was first filled with
sugarcane tops (green leafy portion at the apex of the sugarcane stem) and
air was blown through this biomass using electrically driven blowers
situated at the bottom of the tower. After a few weeks, the temperature of
the biomass rose. When it reached 40 degrees Celsius, the air supply was
stopped and the air vents were closed, so that the fermentation switched
over to the anaerobic phase. Methane produced in this system was used in the
laboratories of the Institute. After the methane production stopped, the
decomposed material served as manure in the farm of the Institute.
A.D.Karve