Feasibility Analysis of a Medium Scale Plug Flow Digester Technology: Case Study in Vietnam

Abstract

The environment pollution and low-cost energy needs have motivated to develop the advanced biogas technologies on medium and large-scale farms in developing countries. And the plug flow digester technology is one of effective solutions for handling livestock manure in bulk quantity with the low-cost, high efficiency, and abundant output gas. In Vietnam, over 20 projects of medium scale using this technology were installed at farms and slaughterhouses, but the obtained results still have been limited. The efficiency of output gas was low and the anaerobic digestion process was prolonged. And as a result, the improved plug flow digester technology has been studied, and designed by our team and experimented successfully in Vietnam. Our model has been operating and sustaining a stable level of biogas quality with a farm of over 1000 pigs. This fabricated model has been treating the annually animal wastes of over 2,800 tons and supplying the annual gas yield up to 56,000 m³. Finally, the success of the improved model would be very positive for treating the breeding wastes and agricultural residues as well as supplying the alternative energy to users in Vietnam.