Relative evaluation of micronutrients (MN) and its respective nanoparticles (NPs) as additives for the enhanced methane generation.

In the present work, effect of micro nutrients (MN) (NiCl2, Fe2O3, CoCl2, (NH4)6Mo7O24) was compared with nanoparticles (NPs) of respective MN with cattle manure (CM) slurry in single and bi-phasic anaerobic digestion (AD) at a hydraulic residence time (HRT) of 20days at a mesophilic temperature of 37±2°C for the generation of biogas with enhanced methane (70-80%). Experiments were also carried out with CM slurry as control. During single phase AD, highest biogas production of 0.16L/(gVS reduced) and 0.14L/(gVS reduced) was obtained from Fe3O4 NPs and CoCl2 MN respectively whereas in bi-phasic AD 0.3L/(gVS reduced) and 0.2L/(gVS reduced) was obtained from NiO NPs and NiCl2 MN correspondingly. The results elucidated that NiCl2 (either as MN or NPs) yielded highest biogas in comparison with either control or other MN and NPs.