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You are here: Home » Renewable Energy » Wind » Solar » Hydro » Three Gorges Project  » Biofuel » Bioethanol » Biogas »  Landfill » Waste Management »Geothermal »  Sustainability 

 
 

Methane For Renewable Energy and Waste Management
Biogas the basis of eco-economy

Biogas originates from biogenic material and is a type of biofuel. Biogas tops renewable energies. While it provides energy, it offers a solution to a cleaner environment. Its generation as a biofuel utilizes biological wastes which would have otherwise posed a persistent and unavoidable pollution problem.

According to the Chinese Academy of Sciences Geography and Resources China Natural Resources and Environment Data Bank, the total annual production of manure and night soil could theoretically generate about 130 billion m3 of methane, equivalent to 93 million tonnes of coal. While only 50% of the theoretical production can be realized in rural areas, 80% of the industrial wastewater can also be used to produce methane.

 

 
  Biogas and landfill gas, which contain methane, are produced by anaerobic digestion of organic material.  Its constituents by volume are 60% of methane, 35% carbon dioxide, with small amounts of water vapor, hydrogen sulphide, carbon monoxide and nitrogen. The composition of biogas varies according to the source of biological material.

By-products can be used as organic fertilizer for soil conditioning and improved crop production. Waste include any form of biological wastes: human wastes, farm waste from livestock and wastewater from slaughterhouses, etc.

 

Biogas can be used as a low-cost fuel for heating or cooking purposes. It can also be used in modern waste management where it can be used to generate power. Biogas can be compressed, much like natural gas, and used to power motor vehicles too.

In an anaerobic digester, methane are other gases are produced when organic wastes break down via natural process in the absence of oxygen. A generator is often installed to produce electricity from the collected biogas to cover part of the operation and energy costs. Surplus biogas will be flared so that preferably CO2 is released into the atmosphere instead of methane. Methane is 25 times more potent than CO2 over 100 years.

Anaerobic digesters can also treat crop and food wastes as well as the algal blooms and water hyacinths that clog up polluted rivers and turn them into biogas energy. The prospects for biogas as renewable energy are excellent, if further rectifications/improvements can be made along the line of generation.

 

Domestic Biogas - Case studies

  Shaanxi Mothers win top environmental award from the Ashden Award  

The award recognizes the tremendous commitment of a small volunteer organization in bringing the health and environmental benefits of biogas to rural communities in China.

The Shaanxi Mothers Organization has installed 1,294 biogas plants in rural farming households in China since 1999. The plants produce biogas from pig and human waste.

The Organization promotes the use of biogas plants connected to the pigsties. These plants provide clean fuel for cooking and lighting, improve sanitation and hygiene and help prevent further environmental degradation. The solid residue from the plants is a valuable fertilizer. Users pay about one third of the cost of the plant which can be covered by the savings they make on fuel and fertilizer within one to two years. Subsidies from the government and Shaanxi Mothers provide the remainder of the cost.
(The Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy)

 

 

In Xinjiang of China, the rural residents have stopped using firewood and turned to methane gas since two years ago. Before this, each family burnt about 500 kilograms of poplar and Chinese tamarisk that are used to mitigate desertification. Annually, 170 000 tons of trees and shrubs are burnt for cooking.

"I don't need to buy firewood anymore, as methane gas is cleaner and more convenient," said a villager, Bisumihan.

Since 2003, the Chinese government has invested about USD 27million in installing methane gas facilities derived from waste management. Since then, deforestation has been reduced to minimum. In addition, residents are encouraged to plant new trees that resist desertification, such as poplars, desert dates and sea buckthorns.

In Nepal there have been 124 000 domestic biogas plants. The plants use cattle manure to provide biogas (mostly methane) for cooking and lighting. The Project greatly improves the living conditions there. About 80% of the Nepal farms uses wood, cattle waste and agricultural residues for cooking and kerosene for lighting. Women have to spend hours each day in distant jungles in search of depleting wood supply. Biogas utilization now benefits about one million people (4% of the population of Nepal), and the biogas sector provides about 11,000 permanent jobs in the country.
 

A Different Kind of Cake, Even More Sustainable!

Cow dung is primarily used as a fertilizer in India. It has been used as fuel in villages. But it is now being more popularly engaged in a  more efficient production of biogas
In villages in India and Nepal, besides the use as fuel,
cow dung 'cakes' are used to line the floor and the walls
of buildings owing to its insect repellent properties and as
a thermal insulator in cold places.
Pic: Making of Cow Dung Cakes: Theindiatree.com

 

  

 
 

In India, China and Nepal, government-support schemes have ensured the program success. With the increase in cost of fossil fuels and the financial returns from the generated carbon credits, biogas is becoming more popular and viable in many developing agricultural countries.

Use in Developed Countries

In the UK and other developed countries, renewed interests on the once abandoned programs are picking up due to hike in oil price and problems arising from waste-related pollution.

In Germany, encouraged by high feed-in tariffs for electricity generated on farms, about 3,500 farm-scale anaerobic digester plants have been installed. There is keen interest in Scandinavia, with buses and even a small train running on biogas in Sweden. Large cattle and pig feed-lots in USA have started to cover their slurry lagoons with butyl sheets to collect the gas produced for energy.

Experts say if projects to produce ethanol from commercial waste are increased, what we throw away could soon be used to power our cars.

The environmental and financial benefits of putting waste to good use are currently being explored in order to develop technology to produce bioethanol.

 

 

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References and related news:

The Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy
 Biogas Bonanza for Third World Development: Jun 2005 i-sis.org
 Biogas China: Oct 2006.i-sis.org
 Cow Dung Takes the Cake - Cleanairnet.org

 
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