Who was the inventor of biogas?

Answer 1

From historical point of view, the discovery of methane is attributed to the chemist, physiologist and family physician Jean Bapiste Van Helmont (1580-1644) and the physician Alexandro Volta (1745-1827). Van Helmont, a Belgian who was born in Brussels on January 12, 1580, recorded in the 17th century a flammable gas from the decomposition of organic matter. Volta, born in 1745 in cone, showed in 1776 that the quantity of gas produced depends on the amount of biodegradable material available in the organic waste. The first scientific research on anaerobic digestion started between 1804 and 1810 with the Britisch physicans and chemists John Dalton (1766-1844), Henry Williams (1774-1836) and Humphry Davy (1778-1829). These three researchers established the chemical composition of methane. In 1868 the French microbiologist, Antoine Bechamp (1816-1908) identified the microorganism responsible for methane production from ethanol. He showed as well that different fermentation products are formed during the digestion process, depending on the type of substrate.

The concept of anaerobic digestion has been introduced around 1870 with the development of the septic tank system. A general consensus attributes the invention of the septic tank to Jean-Louis Mouras, a French engineer who designed this system in 1971 in Vésoul. In 1981, Mouras filed a patent application for an 'odorless automatic draining tank'. However, the first use of biogas as source of energy began in 1895 with the electrification of the streets of Exeter in the United Kingdom. During the 20's Karl Imhoff a German created in Germany a continuous operating two-stage tank system. The system is called the Imhoff tank. In this system, the settling zone of particle's is separated from the digestion zone. A few years later the system was used in several German cities and in other countries. In 30 years nearly hald the sewage treatment plants in North America used the Imhoff tank