Hemant visited his neighboring village, where a bio-gas plant has been installed recently. He was surprised to see the working of the bio-gas plant. He told his village elders about the advantages of setting up a bio-gas plant in their village. Now. Answer the following question:
(i) What are the advantages of a biogas plant?
(ii) Why is a bio-gas plant commonly called as gobar gas plant?
(iii) Why were the villagers are very much impressed with Hemant?
(i) Biogas is an excellent fuel for cooking purposes and it also contains 75% of methane because of which biogas burns without giving any kind of smoke and also do not leave any residue after being heated.
Since biogas also uses wastewater, it removes the oxygen-demanding pathogens present in the waste thereby preventing the pollution of water bodies.
Biogas plants contain the residue after all the organic matter is converted to gas. This residue is rich in phosphorous and nitrogen which are the two main nutrients for plants. Hence this residue can be used as an organic fertilizer for plants.
Biogas is a cheaper and economic way for villagers to obtain cooking fuel.
(ii) Bio gas is the gas formed in the biogas plant due to anaerobic oxidation of organic material. But the majority or the starting material for the biogas plant in India is the cow dung which is known as “gobar” in Hindi Language and hence the gas formed in the biogas plant is termed as the “gobar gas”
(iii) The villagers were very much impressed because of following reasons:
1. For generation of biogas the raw material is all the organic and agricultural waste which is readily available in their homes.
2. The slurry from biogas plant can be used as fertilizer for the fields as it is rich in phosphorous and nitrogen.
3. Efficient burning of biogas as compared to other fuels.