Screening of Some Weeds for Their Potential of Biogas Production

The needs of man have increased many-folds in the past century due to the growth of human population and industrialization. Now whole world is facing a deep energy crisis. To overcome the energy crunch many countries have to give extra emphasis on non conventional energy sources. Biomass has been serving mankind since arrival of man on the earth. Biomass is used for production of bioenergy. Biogas is the important bioenergy which is mixture of methane (65 ¿ 75%) and CO2 (30 ¿ 35%) together with other gases like NH3, H2S, H2 and N2 etc in trace quantities produced from organic matter under anaerobic conditions. The gas is highly combustible and can be used for generation of heat, electricity and mechanical energy. The present work has been undertaken to study the potential of some common weeds abundantly found in rural areas to produce biogas.