I wish to do experimentation with biowaste to obtain bio-gas. For enhancing rate of production and content of gas what simple nanotech materials ( easily made) is possible to add in these experiments?
Iron scrap has been shown to improve biogas yield, you can use try that. You can also develop nano based Fe material or combine it with other elements (like Cu) and try in your experiments.
Zhang, Y., Feng, Y., Yu, Q., Xu, Z., Quan, X., 2014. Enhanced high-solids anaerobic digestion of waste activated sludge by the addition of scrap iron. Bioresour. Technol. 159, 297–304.
Best of Luck
Dear Dr. Chauhan,
It is not clear-- to me at least-- that there is such a thing as a simple nanomaterial. A good deal of energy and technology must surely be applied in order to reduce any material to near-molecluar granularity.
In any case, there is some literature on the question, although the science, as is always the case with science, is provisional.
Liu et al writing in "Zero Valent Iron Significantly Enhances Methane Production..." (http://www.nature.com/articles/srep08263) say that "The results demonstrated that both the clean and the rusty iron scrap were more effective than the iron powder for improving methane production..."
By contrast, researchers in Spain-- at least according to news articles-- have found dramatic benefits from using nanoparticles (http://biomassmagazine.com/articles/11118/nanoparticle-technology-triples-the-production-of-biogas). I note, for what it's worth, that these researchers have established a company to promote this technology, and that a tripling of production may simply reflect the fact that the substrate being compared was initially relatively deficient in iron.
There is abundant literature on supplementation of substrates with various trace minerals which, likewise, has shown varying results across a substantial spectrum, and which, likewise, may be strongly influenced by the trace mineral status of the reference substrate.
In sum I would suggest that the literature may be a good source of ideas to test, but that the only results on which predictions of production can depend will be one's own testing on the substrate or substrates that you intend to use in practice. If so, perhaps the best use of research time would be to focus on the development of simple tests that can be used in the field to assay substrates.
David William House, author "The Complete Biogas Handbook", www.completebiogas.com
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