08/01/2024
Biogas capture through anaerobic digestion technology is a relatively recent innovation in human history compared to other waste management strategies. That said, biogas has been used for thousands of years and has been adamantly studied for the last couple of decades.
➡️ 900 BC: The first evidence of biogas was during the time of the Assyrian Empire. Citizens would use biogas to heat their bath water.
➡️ 1600s: Approximately 2,500 years later, a scientist, Jan Baptist Van Helmont, recorded that decaying organic matter could create flammable gases.
➡️ 1700s: Count Alessandro Volta concluded the direct correlation between the amount of decaying organic matter and the amount of flammable gas produced.
➡️ 1800s: At the beginning of the century, Sir Humphry Davy determined that cattle manure contained methane. Later, in 1859, the first digestion plant was built at a l***r colony in Bombay, India. During this time, biogas was recovered from the sewage system and used to fuel streetlamps in Exeter, UK.
➡️ 1900s: As microbiology science developed, Buswell and other researchers in the 1930s identified anaerobic bacteria and ideal conditions for methane production. Fuel supply uncertainty in the 1970s encouraged countries and companies to innovate and source non-fossil fuel energy, inciting the widespread development of anaerobic digesters.
➡️ 2000s: Now in the 21st century, the demand for renewable energy has dramatically increased. Technologies like anaerobic digestion can meet the growing decarbonized energy demand and global and national methane reduction targets.
Read more: https://www.vanguardrenewables.com/insights/the-history-of-biogas
