Abstract

Anaerobic Digestion (AD) has become a viable wayto manage agricultural waste and produce renewable energysimultaneously. Cow dung is a particularly notable feedstock inthis expanding field of study because of its high organic content,accessibility, and dual use as an energy source and animal waste.This study examines the effectiveness of using controlledanaerobic digestion to produce biogas from cow dung. Thejustification for using cow dung is due to it will assist the cattleindustry developing a circular economy by lowering greenhousegas emissions, enhancing waste management techniques, andpromoting decentralised power systems. The performance of theAD process was assessed through the analysis of Total Solids (TS),Volatile Solids (VS), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), andVolatile Fatty Acids (VFA). Initially in the digestive process, asignificant rise in VFA levels suggested that hydrolysis,acidogenesis, and acetogenesis were all actively proceeding. After40 days of digestion, biogas tests showed a methane content of upto 60%, indicating that methane generation peaked during themethanogenesis period. Significant drops in TS and VS (between92% and 99%) provided further verification of the high level oforganic matter decomposition. Furthermore, 96.4% CODremoval was achieved, highlighting the effective breakdown andconversion of organic material into CO₂ and CH₄, which arecomponents of biogas. These results demonstrate the energy andenvironmental advantages of anaerobic digestion as a greenwaste-to-energy technology and support the feasibility of usingcow dung as a feedstock for biogas generation.