Biogas Plant Calculator & Dung to Cooking Gas
Turns dung into biogas
See how much biogas (gobar gas) your animals' dung can make — the daily gas, cooking hours and LPG cylinders saved, plus the digester size and a recommended standard plant.
Dung: cattle ~10 kg/day, buffalo ~15. Mix dung 1:1 with water as feed slurry.
Your animals' dung (50 kg/day) can produce about 2 m³ of biogas a day — enough for roughly 5 burner-hours of cooking, replacing about 1.8 LPG cylinders a month. A 2 m³ plant (digester ≈ 4 m³) suits this.
Next: you also get nutrient-rich slurry (excellent organic manure) as a by-product. Feed the digester daily with fresh dung-and-water slurry, keep it warm, and check for many government subsidies on family biogas plants.
Estimates from standard dung and gas-yield figures; real output varies with temperature, feed and digester type.
Biogas — key facts
- Cattle dung yield
- ≈ 0.04 m³ gas/kg
- Cow dung
- ≈ 10 kg/day
- 1 m³ biogas
- ≈ 2–2.5 burner-hours
- LPG saved
- ≈ 0.43 kg per m³
- 1 m³ plant needs
- ≈ 25 kg dung/day
- Feed slurry
- dung + equal water
- Retention time
- ≈ 40 days
- Privacy
- Runs in your browser; nothing uploaded
Turn dung into clean fuel — and better manure
A biogas plant ferments animal dung in a sealed digester, producing methane-rich gas for cooking and a slurry that's better manure than the raw dung you started with. The gas potential is simple to estimate: fresh cattle dung yields about 0.04 m³ of biogas per kilogram, so your herd's daily dung sets the daily gas. From that, this tool works out the cooking hours, the LPG cylinders saved, the digester volume (slurry × ~40-day retention) and the nearest standard family-plant size.
The payback is real: a few cattle can replace much of a household's cooking-gas bill, cut smoke from firewood, and still return all the nutrients to the field as digested slurry — richer in available nitrogen and free of most weed seeds. Feed the plant a steady daily slurry of dung and equal water, keep it warm for best output, and check local subsidy schemes for family biogas units. Pair with the Compost & Manure tool to value the slurry you get back.
Size the plant
See the digester volume and the standard plant size your dung supports.
Value the savings
Estimate cooking hours and LPG cylinders saved every month.
Mix dung sources
Combine cattle, buffalo, pig and poultry manure, each with its own gas yield.
Get manure too
Remember the digested slurry is a high-quality organic fertilizer by-product.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much biogas does cow dung produce?+
Fresh cattle dung yields roughly 0.04 m³ of biogas per kilogram, so a cow producing about 10 kg of dung a day gives around 0.4 m³ of gas. Five cattle (50 kg dung) make about 2 m³ a day — enough for several hours of cooking. This tool totals it for your animals.
How big a biogas plant do I need?+
Size the plant by daily gas demand and dung supply. Family floating-drum/fixed-dome plants come in standard sizes of 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 m³ of gas per day. The tool recommends the next standard size above your dung's gas output and estimates the digester volume.
How much dung is needed for a biogas plant?+
As a rule of thumb, a 1 m³/day plant needs about 25 kg of fresh dung daily (2–3 cattle), a 2 m³ plant about 50 kg (4–5 cattle), and so on. The dung is mixed with an equal volume of water to make the feed slurry.
How much LPG does biogas replace?+
About 0.43 kg of LPG per cubic metre of biogas. So 2 m³ a day saves roughly 0.86 kg of LPG daily — about 1.8 standard 14.2 kg cylinders a month. The tool shows the cylinders saved for your gas output.
What can I do with the biogas?+
Mainly cooking — one cubic metre runs a single burner for roughly 2–2.5 hours. Biogas can also fuel lighting (mantle lamps), small engines and generators. The tool estimates daily cooking hours from your gas production.
What is the digester size?+
The digester (fermentation tank) must hold the daily feed slurry for its full retention time (about 40 days). Since slurry is dung plus an equal volume of water, the digester volume is roughly the daily slurry volume × 40 — the tool calculates this for you.
Is the leftover slurry useful?+
Very — digested slurry is an excellent organic manure, richer in available nitrogen than raw dung and largely weed-seed and pathogen free. So a biogas plant gives you both clean cooking fuel and better fertilizer from the same dung.
Does temperature affect biogas output?+
Yes — digestion is fastest in warm conditions (around 30–40 °C) and slows in cold weather, so winter output drops. Insulating the plant, siting it in the sun, or feeding warm slurry helps maintain production in cool climates.
Can I use poultry or pig manure?+
Yes — pig and poultry manure actually yield more gas per kilogram than cattle dung (about 0.06 and 0.07 m³/kg). The tool carries the right yield for each animal, so you can mix sources; just keep the feed consistent for stable production.
Are there subsidies for biogas plants?+
Many governments subsidise family biogas plants through rural energy programmes. This tool sizes the plant and estimates savings; check your local agricultural or renewable-energy department for current subsidy schemes and approved models.