Characterization of the physicochemical properties of the excrement of cattle, horses, pigs and chickens for the generation of biogas

Abstract

The purpose of this article was the physicochemical characterization that determines the potential of substrates to experience a biological process such as anaerobic digestion. According to the research method, this study is experimental, cattle manure, horse, chicken and pork were chosen as organic substrates. For the characterization of the basic properties of organic matter was based on the APHA/SM 2540-B standard which establishes gravimetric techniques. The results obtained show according to the analyses of univariate and multivariate variances that there are significant differences between the substrates under study and that the cattle substrate presented a vector of stockings greater than the rest of substrates; however, they are all within the ranges reported by other authors. It is concluded that the cattle substrate differs from the rest of the substrates and presented the best vector of stockings, analyses of total solids, volatile solids, dry mass, ash, carbon, nitrogen and the carbon/nitrogen ratio show that they were within the optimal ranges that meet the growth and production needs of methane from anaerobic bacteria, the Carbon/Nitrogen ratio in the case of cattle excreta resulted out of range.