Biogas fever is on the rise in developing countries

For isolated, rural, and less wealthy populations, the benefits of an effective circular economy are even more direct, concrete and obvious than for a Western urban population. Anaerobic digestion fits perfectly in such a circular economy for several reasons, in part thanks to the energy independence it induces. This is why biogas fever is on the rise in developing countries, as more and more anaerobic digesters are getting built on farms and in remote rural communities. SNV, a humanitarian organization founded in 1965 in the Netherlands, has contributed to implementing many domestic biogas units in several developing countries and the observed results are striking.

Biogas, an accessible, viable, and sustainable humanitarian solution

From the outset, anaerobic digestion contributes obviously to a circular economy because while on one hand it produces biogas for cooking, heating, and even lighting, it also generates digestate which can fertilize future crops,  and allows reducing the waste of organics that would otherwise be discarded (food waste, livestock manure, etc.). Thus, it fully exploits the biological and energy potential of unused organics. Moreover, as anaerobic digestion is a natural process relatively easy to reproduce at any scale, the implementation of small anaerobic digesters is possible without requiring huge investments such as those associated for example with the installation of an electricity or gas grid to rally an isolated community. We can then easily understand why biogas is an interesting solution for developing countries located in areas presenting a relatively warm and stable climate.

Therefore, it is not surprising that the humanitarian organization SNV started in Nepal in 1989 to get involved in anaerobic digestion. Since, SNV has remained very active especially in Africa, Asia, and Latin America to significantly improve the standards of living of the communities benefiting from its support. Also having been directly involved in the building of more than 660,000 domestic biogas units in over 20 countries, one must admit that the organization plays a crucial role in the democratization of the use of biogas in the field of humanitarian aid. Inter alia, this outstanding involvement in humanitarian biogas earned SNV to be among the four nominations to the Zayed Future Energy Prize 2016. Even if SNV did not win the award, this nomination is worth its weight in gold whereas over 1500 projects from 97 different countries were in the running.

The inception of an industry in Tanzania

One of the countries that benefited greatly from the help of SNV is Tanzania. SNV has contributed to building up to 12,000 domestic digesters benefiting over 70,000 Tanzanians. Also, 10,000 additional digesters will be built through 2016-2017 as part of the same program, the Tanzania Domestic Biogas Programme (TDBP), which is partly financed by Norway. Of course, microeconomic benefits for the communities are obvious, but it is also important to highlight the major macroeconomic impact of the Tanzanian program as planned from the beginning by the instigators. The main purpose of TDBP was to not only provide access to biogas to Tanzanians in need but also to develop an industry to maximize the dispersion of domestic biogas in Tanzania and establish a flourishing market. The objective is effectively being reached considering that more than 60 Tanzanian companies building digesters have already been created, and all indications are that this number will certainly increase.

Hence, one can only apprehend the sustainable benefits that anaerobic digestion can generate regarding humanitarian aid and developing countries. Requiring little technology in comparison to solar or wind energy, it is clear that biogas has the advantages needed in order to be disseminated quickly and efficiently in a precarious economy. Furthermore, it is encouraging to note that several developed countries participate financially in such large-scale humanitarian projects. Thereupon, the UK has just announced the grant of GBP 40 million for agricultural, food production and clean energy projects that could very well be anaerobic digestion projects comparable to what has been realized in Tanzania.

Finally, now that we know that biogas is a sustainable humanitarian solution, it still remains to be promoted to Western populations and authorities in order to get their support and achieve to implement biogas as part of an optimal circular economy.

By Simon Lefebvre | 2016-05-13

Sources: SNV Global [1, 2, 3, 4 (image)], The Anaerobic Digestion & Bioresources Association