Biogas

High school (ages 12+)
Environment & Earth

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/biogas

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the primary gas composition?Methane (CH4) and Carbon Dioxide (CO2)
2. What is the production process?Anaerobic digestion by microbial consortia in oxygen-depleted environments
3. What is biogas and what does it look like?Biogas is a gas made from breaking down trash and animal poop. It mainly contains methane and carbon dioxide, with tiny amounts of other gases.
4. How does biogas help the planet?It takes waste that would go to landfills and turns it into clean energy, so less methane is released into the air. It also gives farmers a natural fertilizer after the gas is made.

Anaerobic Digestion: Microbial decomposition of organic matter in the absence of oxygen, producing biogas and digestate.
Methanogens: Archaea that produce methane as a metabolic byproduct in anaerobic conditions.
Renewable Natural Gas (RNG): Biogas that has been purified to meet natural gas pipeline quality specifications.
Digestate: The nutrient-rich solid or liquid residue remaining after anaerobic digestion.