History and future of domestic biogas plants in the developing world

Energy is an indispensable part of modern society and can serve as one of the most important indicators of socio-economic development. Despite advancements in technology, however, some three billion people, primarily in the rural areas of developing countries, continue to meet their energy needs for cooking through traditional means by burning biomass resources (i.e., firewood, crop residues and animal dung) in crude traditional stoves. Such practices are known to be the source of significant environmental, social, economic and public health issues. To achieve sustainable development in these regions, it is imperative that access to clean and affordable (renewable) energy is made available. Within this context, upgrading existing biomass resources (i.e., animal manure, crop residues, kitchen waste and green wastes) to cleaner and more efficient energy carriers (such as biogas from anaerobic digestion) has unique potential to provide clean and reliable energy, while simultaneously preserving the local and global environment. In spite of its significant potential to serve developing nations, however, the high costs and lack of expertise in installation and maintenance of biogas technology preclude widespread adoption in geographically isolated communities. Concerted efforts from both governmental and non-governmental sectors are absolutely essential in facilitating modernization and dissemination of biogas technology to harness the inherent potential that is currently underutilized and unexploited. The intent of this paper seeks to highlight the present status, challenges, and potential of biogas technology to advocate for further research, development and dissemination of the concept in developing countries.

Biogas as a sustainable energy source for developing countries: Opportunities and challenges

Access to clean modern energy services is an enormous challenge facing the African continent because energy is fundamental for socioeconomic development and poverty eradication. Today, 60% to 70% of the Nigerian population does not have access to electricity. There is no doubt that the present power crisis afflicting Nigeria will persist unless the government diversifies the energy sources in domestic, commercial, and industrial sectors and adopts new available technologies to reduce energy wastages and to save cost. This review examines a set of energy policy interventions, which can make a major contribution to the sustainable economic, environmental, and social development of Africa's most populated country, Nigeria. Energy efficiency leads to important social benefits, such as reducing the energy bills for poor households. From an economic point of view, implementing the country's renewable energy target will have significant costs, but these can partly be offset by selling carbon credits according to the rules of the ‘Clean Development Mechanism’ agreed some 10 years ago, which will result in indirect health benefits. Nigeria could benefit from the targeted interventions that would reduce the local air pollution and help the country to tackle greenhouse gas emissions. Many factors that need to be considered and appropriately addressed in the shift to its sustainable energy future are examined in this article. These include a full exploitation and promotion of renewable energy resources, energy efficiency practices, as well as the application of energy conservation measures in various sectors such as in the construction of industrial, residential, and office buildings, in transportation, etc.

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Energy and sustainable development in Nigeria: the way forward

This review is a summary of different aspects of the design and operation of small-scale, household, biogas digesters. It covers different digester designs and materials used for construction, important operating parameters such as pH, temperature, substrate, and loading rate, applications of the biogas, the government policies concerning the use of household digesters, and the social and environmental effects of the digesters. Biogas is a value-added product of anaerobic digestion of organic compounds. Biogas production depends on different factors including: pH, temperature, substrate, loading rate, hydraulic retention time (HRT), C/N ratio, and mixing. Household digesters are cheap, easy to handle, and reduce the amount of organic household waste. The size of these digesters varies between 1 and 150 m 3 . The common designs include fixed dome, floating drum, and plug flow type. Biogas and fertilizer obtained at the end of anaerobic digestion could be used for cooking, lighting, and electricity.

https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/5/8/2911/pdf

Household Biogas Digesters—A Review

Nigeria is endowed with abundant energy resources, both conventional and renewable, which can potentially provide the country with a sufficient capacity to meet the ambitions of both urban and rural Nigerians of a full, nationwide electrification level. Yet, Nigeria has one of the lowest consumption rates of electricity per capita in Africa. With the demand superseding the generation, there is inequitable access of rural communities to the electricity service in the country. There are inherent obstacles militating against the effective implementation of an orderly energy policy in Nigeria. The inefficiencies overshadowing the allocation of energy resources coupled with the near depletion of fossil fuels, make it imperative for the country to exploit its huge natural renewable resources to avoid a worsening energy supply scenario and provide feasible electricity to rural dwellers. This paper presents a review of renewable energy potentials in Nigeria to be tapped for useful and uninterrupted electric energy supply. The extent of renewable energy resources is described and existing government policies are articulated. Various polices, that could possibly incentivize the realization of wider renewable energy applications in rural Nigeria, are proposed. The challenges and future prospects of renewable energy are also discussed. Dissemination of decentralized renewable energy resources will not only improve the wellbeing of rural Nigerian communities, but also enhance Nigeria's energy and economic prospects for potential global investment.

Renewable energy potentials in Nigeria: Meeting rural energy needs

Industrial revolution brought coal, a fossil fuel, to the forefront of the global energy scene. This was later overtaken by another fossil fuel, crude oil; and natural gas is trying fast to take over the dominant role in the world energy supply mix. The increasing world-wide awareness and concern about the environmental impacts of fossil fuels coupled with the oil price shocks of the early 1970s and late 1980s, and likely future price hikes, have lent enormous weight to a switch to renewable energy sources. This paper therefore looks at biogas (renewable) energy use in Nigeria, a country which is fossil fuels rich and an oil exporting nation. In order to contain the uncertainty usually associated with structural transformation of the economy typical of a developing country like Nigeria, a three scenario analysis has been adopted to examine the future prospects of biogas in the country. While a generated energy from biogas would range between 5.0–171.0×1012 J in the period 2000–2030 under a moderate ambitious biogas technology programme, some constraints may hinder this realization. These include economic, technical and socio–cultural constraints. Recommendations to overcome these constraints and make biogas technology penetrate even more than already projected into the rural communities and poor urban households have been suggested. Part of the envisaged benefits of biogas use to the national economy includes the avoidable CO2 emissions. If biogas displaces kerosene, at least between 357–60,952 tons of CO2 per annum would be avoided.

T.O. Oyebisi

Papers

Biogas energy use in Nigeria: current status, future prospects and policy implications

Engineering design and economic evaluation of a family-sized biogas project in Nigeria

Industry-academic relations: An assessment of the linkages between a university and some enterprises in Nigeria

Organisational impact of information technology on the banking and insurance sector in Nigeria

On reliability and maintenance management of electronic equipment in the tropics