Abstract

The comparative study of biogas production from the fresh and dry domestic cow dung was carried out and investigated. Freshly and dry cow dung was collected from the house of Alhaji Yusuf in Shama village located in Udus permanent site, Sokoto state, Nigeria. The method used in biogas production was water displacement method and the biogas was collected through a pipe connected to the digester which was inserted into a measuring cylinder filled with water and inverted in a container with water and each of the samples were replicated into three. A total average biogas of 737.14 cm³ and 4374.2 cm³ were recorded by 1:1 and 1:6 ratios of 200 g of fresh and dry respectively. The daily biogas yield from the digester was monitored for 49 days. The amount of biogas produced was recorded at 12 noon on weekly basis. The production temperature ranges from 29°C to 34.3°C. The pH of the slurry before and after the biogas production was determined. Initial and final pH of each digester was (7.8 and 5.5), and (8.5 and 5.6). Statistical analysis (t-Test) was applied to further investigate whether the results differ significantly. The result revealed that there is significance difference between the two samples (1.782 < t Critical two-tail of 2.178). The bacteria and fungi associated with the production were determined. The result obtained were bacillus megaterium, Proteus vulgaris, Micrococcus luteus, Bacillus laterosporus, Yersinie entrocolitica, pseudomonas auregenosa, Bacillus licheniform, klebsiella sp, Citrobacter fruendi, Staphylococcus aureus, Aspergillus niger, Mucor mucedo, Penicillium notatum. However, proximate analysis was done to determine the physicochemical parameters of each dried sample. Proximate analysis was done and the parameters determined from both fresh and dry cow dung were Moisture (18.96 and 20.02%), Ash (23.66 and 33.35%), phosphorus (0.216 and 0.196), potassium (92 and 12), Nitrogen (1.5 and 2.4) and organic carbon (13.5 and 10).