Low cost digester monitoring under realistic conditions: Rural use of biogas and digestate quality

•A rural tubular digester was installed and monitoring during under realistic conditions.•Biogas production was enough to supply 76% of energetic requirements.•A Colombian family from a rural area saved 50 US$/month by using biogas instead of propane.•Biogas digestate has a good quality for agricultural systems.•Digestate required a post-treatment for its final disposal.

The purpose of this work was to assess the behaviour of anaerobic digestion of cattle manure in a rural digester under realistic conditions, and estimate the quality and properties of the digestate. The data obtained during monitoring indicated that the digester operation was stable without risk of inhibition. It produced an average of 0.85 Nm3 biogas/d at 65.6% methane, providing an energy savings of 76%. In addition, the digestate contained high nutrient concentrations, which is an important feature of fertilizers. However, this method requires post-treatment due to the presence of pathogens.

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