Detailed information about anaerobic digestion

To find out about some of the things which influence digester operation (and need to be considered in design) without getting all messy you may like to look at a computer MODEL of a Continuous Flow Stirred Tank digester for piggery effluent.

Adoption of biogas technology in India is studied in Mathias Gustavsson's thesis.

See how biogas is produced and used in Costa Rica (an English script is available for the Spanish narration).

Here is a simple (and cheap!) approach to biogas analysis (assuming the main gases present are Methane and Carbon Dioxide!). If you get a low CO2 level and still no stable flame you may have Nitrogen present from an air leak.

Now you are nearly an expert you could also visit

GTZ for a look around, or else
the ARTI site from India - great domestic size/scale systems running off food waste
biofuelswork is another informative site
try PRACTICALLY GREEN, one of many commercial suppliers.
For a low technology, integrated view visit the University of Tropical Agriculture Foundation.

There are a number of different types of digester in use, http://www.uasb.org/index.htm is about Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket digesters for dilute wastes.

If you are interested in solid waste digestion this book chapter may be a good starting point.
It's from: "Biomethanization of the Organic Fraction of Municipal Solid Wastes", Editor(s): J. Mata-Alvarez, September 2002 · Pages: 336 · ISBN: 1900222140 IWA Publishing.
"I review in this chapter the most common (full scale) reactor designs used to digest solid wastes. I tried to combine the scientific and engineering viewpoints in the paper. If you have difficulties opening or reading the file, please request another copy from coauthor Willy.Verstraete or from his secretary Christine.Graveels." Contributed by Philippe Vandevivere.

A simple approach to "solid digestion" has been proposed by Dr Duncan Martin and Mr Paul Harris.

Also Ben Dearman completed a PhD thesis through Flinders University on the anaerobic digestion of kitchen waste.

There is lots of information, this book titled Biogas Technology in Nepal: A Sustainable Source of Energy for Rural People by Mr. Govinda Devkota may be helpful to you.

The AgStar program has information and a comprehensive software model to download.

It is good to start small, how about a home sized project?

There are many years of experience in these posts from Les Gornall (thanks for permission to use them , Les) -

For more information try the Other Resources page or

Combustion information and another view of biogas/biofuels may answer some more of your questions,
http://www.biogas.ch/, (Swiss)
http://www.habmigern2003.info/biogas/Baron-digester/Baron-digester.htm and
http://www.methane-gas.com/.

There are LOTS of other sites as well, tell me your favourite.