Digitizing Biogas Generation Through Smart Metering, Cloud Analytics & IoT-Driven Operational Intelligence

Industry: Renewable Energy, Waste-to-Energy, Environmental Engineering

Region: India, Africa & Southeast Asia

Engagement: Complete development of a ruggedized IoT metering solution for biogas plants - including device firmware, data acquisition systems, cloud platform, and analytics dashboard.

Technology Stack Overview

IoT Hardware:Custom PCB, Flow sensors (mass flow, pressure, methane%), Temperature sensors, GSM/LTE modules, LoRaWAN-compatible firmware

IoT Backend:AWS IoT Core, MQTT, AWS Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB, S3

Dashboard & API Layer:ReactJS, Node.js / Python (FastAPI), TimescaleDB for time-series analytics

Security:X.509 device certificates, encrypted payloads, IAM-based access

Challenge

Biogas generators - used in farms, municipalities, food-processing plants, and waste-to-energy facilities - face persistent operational challenges:

• Manual gas production measurement leading to inaccurate reporting

• No visibility into daily methane generation, flow rates, or leak detection

• Difficulty tracking plant efficiency across multiple sites

• Inability to predict maintenance for compressors, digesters, or scrubbers

• Compliance challenges due to missing or inconsistent data

The client required an IoT-based metering platform that could measure, store, analyze, and remotely monitor biogas production - with industry-grade accuracy and reliability.

Solution

EC Infosolutions delivered a complete IoT biogas metering ecosystem - from device firmware to cloud analytics - enabling real-time plant performance monitoring and actionable insights.

Key Functional Modules

1. Smart Biogas Metering Device

A rugged IoT device installed at the gas outlet - capable of measuring:

• Methane concentration (%)

• Gas flow rate

• Gas pressure

• Digester temperature & ambient data

• Totalizer (cumulative production)

The device communicated via MQTT over 4G/LoRaWAN to AWS IoT Core.

2. AWS IoT Cloud Infrastructure

Secure, scalable cloud architecture included:

• AWS IoT Core for authenticated device messaging

• Lambda functions for data processing & validation

• DynamoDB + TimescaleDB for high-frequency time-series storage

• CloudWatch alerts for anomaly & leak detection

• S3 for log archiving and data export

The system supported thousands of devices with automatic scaling.

3. Biogas Analytics Web Dashboard (ReactJS)

A centralized interface for plant managers featuring:

• Real-time gas flow graphs

• Hourly, daily & monthly generation analytics

• Methane % fluctuations

• Pressure & temperature trends

• Predictive maintenance indicators

• CO2/Methane ratio insights

• Digestor health scoring

• Exportable Excel and compliance reports

Each device was mapped to a plant, with multi-site comparison tools.

4. Alerting & Notification System

Automated alerts via SMS, WhatsApp or Email for:

• Low methane content

• Unusual pressure drops

• Suspected leakage

• Device offline

• Sensor drift & calibration needs

• Digestor overtemperature

This enabled proactive troubleshooting and avoided production losses.

5. Device Management Console

Admin portal for:

• Device provisioning

• Over-the-air (OTA) firmware updates

• Diagnostics: signal strength, uptime, data latency

• Calibration cycles logging

• Permissions management (Operator / Manager / Admin roles)

Results

• Accuracy Improved: Real-time measurements reduced reporting errors by >90%.

• Operational Efficiency: Plant teams optimized feedstock ratios based on methane trends.

• Predictive Maintenance: Alerts reduced compressor and motor failures by ~35%.

• Regulatory Compliance: Automatic logs simplified submissions for carbon credits & audits.

• Scalability: The system supported multi-site installations across remote rural regions.

• Energy Optimization: Insights helped clients increase usable gas output by 10–15%.

Key Takeaways

• IoT metering brings industrial-grade visibility to biogas generation operations.

• Real-time telemetry helps eliminate waste, improve safety, and enhance plant uptime.

• Cloud dashboards unify all facility data, enabling better decision-making.

• Predictive alerts reduce downtime and extend equipment life.

• The solution is modular and expandable - suitable for digester farms, food waste plants, municipal STPs, and CBG plants.

Get Connect

Looking to digitize your renewable energy operations?

EC Infosolutions builds custom IoT systems for biogas, solar, water, and industrial monitoring using AWS IoT and full-stack cloud engineering.

Book a strategy session and discover how IoT can revolutionize your plant efficiency.