Technical Evaluation of Uptake, Use, Management and Future Implications of Household Biogas Digesters—A Case of Kampala City Peri-Urban Areas
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Date
2017
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Computational Water, Energy, and Environmental Engineering
Abstract
The purposes for which biogas technology was introduced at household level
were multiple but the major and direct one was to provide a clean and sus-
tainable energy, thereby reducing the reliance on wood fuel. From the so-
cio-economic studies that have been carried out, biogas end-users and techni-
cians continue to be blamed for technical factors hindering its adoption and
use. However, the ways these factors hinder biogas adoption and use plus the
linkage between them seem not well understood right from policy to end-
users. A technical survey was carried out on household biogas digesters to
evaluate the adoption, use and management factors and their implications on
the future of household digesters. Over-designed digesters in relation to fami-
ly size yet not producing enough biogas, dependence on cow dung as the
feedstock, 75% of users not being sure of loading rate and mixing ratios, not
feeding the digesters daily by all households were found to be the main causes
of why biogas was not enough for 87.5% of the respondents and digesters
were abandoned in Kampala, Uganda. All surveyed digesters were characte-
rized by starvation-overfeeding problem. Wood fuel was found still dominat-
ing in these households with biogas. Given that end-users had no options of
digester types from which to select, but handed-over with over-size fixed
dome digesters, there is need for all biogas stakeholders to come together as
the reality on ground reveals that right from inception to management, eve-
ryone is to blame for the technical failures.
Description
Keywords
Biogas Technology, Wood Fuel, Policy, Feedstock, Technical Failures
Citation
Tumutegyereize, P., Ketlogetswe, C., Gandure, J. and Ba- nadda, N. (2017) Technical Evaluation of Uptake, Use, Management and Future Im- plications of Household Biogas Digesters— A Case of Kampala City Peri-Urban Areas. Computational Water, Energy, and Environ- mental Engineering, 6, 180-191. https://doi.org/10.4236/cweee.2017.62013