Proximate Analysis of Saw Dust from Tipper Garage Saw Mill Lugbe, Abuja Nigeria to be Uploaded into the Abundant Regional Substrate Database for Biogas Production

In view of the ever increasing costs and the negative environmental impacts of petroleum-based fuels and enormous amount of sawdust generated yearly in Nigeria. This study was undertaken to assess the suitability of sawdust as source of energy by determining their chemical properties via proximate analysis carried out at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Ibadan, Oyo state, Nigeria. The results shows the moisture to be (%MC) 9.08 of the sawdust samples, respectively, the ash contents (%Ash) was 2.8 and the organic matter was 88.10 and the fixed carbon contents ranged between 51.10%, Nitrogen (N) was 0.2.The chemical properties showed that the sawdust of wood would be suitable as source of energy for thermal plant, electricity and automobile engines compared with those of Nigerian coal species. The required [C:N] ratio for optimum biogas production in organic matter ranges from 20:1 and 30:1. The [C:N] ratio obtained in this work is 50:0.1 which implies that the substrate or wood have a very high concentration of carbon and is deficient in Nitrogen. Therefore, if this wood substrate must be used for biomethenation, nitrogen should be augmented by using supplements rich in nitrogen such as tannery effluent, corn, soya bean milk, ground nut cake, gram flour, ammonium sulfate and urea during pretreatment of substrates, and also, the concentration of carbon must be regulated to meet up with the biomethane potential (BMP) requirement for this substrate. The aim of this work is geared towards determining the chemical constituents of this substrate and to ascertain it’s usability in biomethenation, to be added to the substrate biomethane potential (BMP) database of these substrates for referral purposes in scientific findings and research. This is because optimum methanization (biogas production) is only possible with the right range of pH, Carbon, Nitrogen, Carbon Nitrogen ratio, ash content, sulfur and others of these factors and macro nutrien