DOI: 10.36347/sjet.2019.v07i01.005

Pages: 27-32

Organic wastes constitute the major percentage of solid wastes generated globally especially in urban homes. When these organic wastes are left to decompose on their own, they release a blend of gases, primarily methane and carbon dioxide (CO2) which are greenhouse gases. The greenhouse gases have contributed to climatic changes. However, the controlled conversion of these gases into purified bio-methane achieves bioremediation and source of alternative cooking fuel for households. Many technologies of scrubbing CO2 have high operational costs, making them unsuitable for household applications. In this work, bio-methane was produced from a mixture of cow dung and vegetable wastes at prevalent temperature of 30oC and pressure of 1 bar. The raw gas was scrubbed with aqueous sodium hydroxide (NaOH) to achieve purity of 98.96% which is up to natural gas standard. The suitable order of reaction tested for the scrubbing of bio-methane was pseudo second order rate of reaction with rate constant of k = 0.0057mol-1s-1. The rate equation derived predicts the service life of the solvent to inform when to recharge the scrubber. Hence the sustainability of this work is highly advocated for, because it is affordable and technologically easy and safe to operate.