Seeing that the production of methane was successful and has many applications it can be applied to the real world. Not only can it be used on commercial levels to produce energy it can also be used as a personal generator that you could build in your backyard.

(fig 10-1) This image shows an area where biogas is being generated.

Other advantages include the fact that biogas can be generated from other sources, if you were to combine the gas from those sources with the gas from a biogas generator you would be able to obtain far more gas than just using a generator alone.

Generation of Electricity

The methane produced from the biogas generator can be used to generate electricity. The simplest way is burning it to heat water which creates steam and than the steam turns large turbines producing electricity.

(fig 10-2) This image shows how biogas can be used to produce electricity with steam turbines.

Another way of producing electricity is through a methane fuel cell.This method involves in separating the carbon from the hydrogen in the methane. The methods which can be used are steam reforming or Autothermal reforming. In steam reforming a hot gas heats tubes in which the reaction takes place this converts the steam and methane into hydrogen and carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide than further goes through a gas shift reaction and creates more hydrogen and some carbon dioxide. Finally pressure swing absorption is used to separate the other gases from the hydrogen leaving only pure hydrogen. After you have got the hydrogen it can be used in a hydrogen fuel cell to produce electricity.

(fig 10-3) Typical hydrogen fuel cell.

Heating

Biogas can be used in your furnace to heat your house. Biogas is almost identical to natural gas so it has many of the same uses. If you wanted to improve combustion you could use a mix of your biogas with natural gas. Biogas can also be used for any cooking from barbeques to everyday cooking on the stove. Once again it can be mixed with natural gas here as well to improve combustion.

Fertilizer

Biogas has more use than just the methane it produces. After the production of biogas slows down in the generator the material in it needs to be replaced with new manure and water. The old manure or the waste you had in the digester afterwards can be used as rich black soil and fertilizer because it still contains large amounts of plant material and organic matter.