Bio-gas is saviour at your doorstep
Jul 05, 2004
WHEREAS other countries have made several attempts to discover alternatives to electricity energy in rural areas, Uganda is still clinging to the dangerous and expensive strategies of rural electrification.
By Louise Kibuuka
WHEREAS other countries have made several attempts to discover alternatives to electricity energy in rural areas, Uganda is still clinging to the dangerous and expensive strategies of rural electrification.
In China and India, the alternatives to electricity started two decades ago. The high population increased too much excreta and it was hard to dispose of it.
In some other countries, the water table was too high to dig pit latrines. In other countries it was very hard to find wood fuel.
Uganda, falsely thinking has none of these problems, continue to use wood fuel for cooking, import petrol to run vehicles and use electricity for cooking and lighting.
Consequently, forests are diminishing through cutting of trees, drinking water is contaminated by human excreta, and people are getting poorer and poorer paying for imported petrol and diesel.
The high bills of electricity, load shading interruptions, and the high inhalation of smoke by women cooking with firewood should have caused enough trouble to drive think tanks to invent alternative energy sources for especially the rural peasants.
Studies for alternative energy sources like solar; wind and thermal energy have been unreliable and proved expensive. According to the Energy Minister, Syda Bbumba, studies have been done on the viability of wind energy in Kasese, Mt. Elgon, Kotido and Ssesse Islands. Geothermal studies are going on in Moroto, Bundibugyo and Kitagata.
Solar power has proved efficient but not very effective due to high initial installation fee.
The appropriate energy resource for the rural peasant for cooking and lighting would be biogas.
Biogas which is generated whenever organic matter like animal dung, human excreta, kitchen waste, tree leaves are fermented in the absence of air or aneobically, the process converts the bio mass into energy-fuel -called biogas.
In Germany it is know as BIHugas, India Gobar gas and China Marshgas.
The gas has the following main components: 60-70% methane, a colourless, odourless, flammable gaseous hydro-carbon (CH4); 35% carbon dioxide and the rest of the gases are nitrogen, hydrogen and sulphur, taking the 5%.
The gas burns with a blue flame at 1000 C degrees equivalent to 6kwh in terms of electricity energy. Its caloric value amounts to approximately 5200kcal/ cubic meter. So clean is the gas that it is extensively used for cooking and lighting. The gas is reported to generate enough energy to drive a generator and a car engine.
The Chinese report that when used in a car engine, the gas prolongs the engine’s life!
The biomas residue left after the fermentation process is the sludge — a first-class organic fertilizer composed of phosphates, calcium and potassium.
Perez Stephen Wamboga, a Kulika Charitable Trust Rural tutor at Pallisa Community Centre, blames the failure for biogas to take root in Uganda on the Ugandan engineers who learnt about the biogas technology earlier and did not introduce it to the rural farmers.
“Those engineers who learnt about this technology earlier were very unfair.†They made the construction price too high for the rural farmer. They talked in millions, when the plant can be installed with a mere sh200,000,†he says.
According to Wamboga, currently there are four types of biogas plants in the world. The Indian type or floating drum digester, the Chinese type or fixed doom digester or the Tubular balloon digester and the Bio-latrine digester.
“The Tubular Balloon digester is most appropriate and easier to operate. However, the farmer should have the following items and a construction fee of sh200.000,†he says.
PVC, plastic pipe 1/2 inch 10metres long, rubber bands- (these can be obtained from an old car tyre), a 3-litre plastic jelly can, 4 Jubilee clips, a garden hose pipe (3/4 inch), 3 Tee joints, 2 glove valves/ taps, 1-2 bags of cement, 80-200 bricks, sand (3-6 wheel barrows), poles and local materials for thatching the roof, two helpers, a cooking appliance (gas stove) and a biogas lamp.
You also will need to have at least 1-2 exotic cow or 2-3 cross-breed cows for fresh dung and good amount of water for mixing the dung.
WHEREAS other countries have made several attempts to discover alternatives to electricity energy in rural areas, Uganda is still clinging to the dangerous and expensive strategies of rural electrification.
In China and India, the alternatives to electricity started two decades ago. The high population increased too much excreta and it was hard to dispose of it.
In some other countries, the water table was too high to dig pit latrines. In other countries it was very hard to find wood fuel.
Uganda, falsely thinking has none of these problems, continue to use wood fuel for cooking, import petrol to run vehicles and use electricity for cooking and lighting.
Consequently, forests are diminishing through cutting of trees, drinking water is contaminated by human excreta, and people are getting poorer and poorer paying for imported petrol and diesel.
The high bills of electricity, load shading interruptions, and the high inhalation of smoke by women cooking with firewood should have caused enough trouble to drive think tanks to invent alternative energy sources for especially the rural peasants.
Studies for alternative energy sources like solar; wind and thermal energy have been unreliable and proved expensive. According to the Energy Minister, Syda Bbumba, studies have been done on the viability of wind energy in Kasese, Mt. Elgon, Kotido and Ssesse Islands. Geothermal studies are going on in Moroto, Bundibugyo and Kitagata.
Solar power has proved efficient but not very effective due to high initial installation fee.
The appropriate energy resource for the rural peasant for cooking and lighting would be biogas.
Biogas which is generated whenever organic matter like animal dung, human excreta, kitchen waste, tree leaves are fermented in the absence of air or aneobically, the process converts the bio mass into energy-fuel -called biogas.
In Germany it is know as BIHugas, India Gobar gas and China Marshgas.
The gas has the following main components: 60-70% methane, a colourless, odourless, flammable gaseous hydro-carbon (CH4); 35% carbon dioxide and the rest of the gases are nitrogen, hydrogen and sulphur, taking the 5%.
The gas burns with a blue flame at 1000 C degrees equivalent to 6kwh in terms of electricity energy. Its caloric value amounts to approximately 5200kcal/ cubic meter. So clean is the gas that it is extensively used for cooking and lighting. The gas is reported to generate enough energy to drive a generator and a car engine.
The Chinese report that when used in a car engine, the gas prolongs the engine’s life!
The biomas residue left after the fermentation process is the sludge — a first-class organic fertilizer composed of phosphates, calcium and potassium.
Perez Stephen Wamboga, a Kulika Charitable Trust Rural tutor at Pallisa Community Centre, blames the failure for biogas to take root in Uganda on the Ugandan engineers who learnt about the biogas technology earlier and did not introduce it to the rural farmers.
“Those engineers who learnt about this technology earlier were very unfair.†They made the construction price too high for the rural farmer. They talked in millions, when the plant can be installed with a mere sh200,000,†he says.
According to Wamboga, currently there are four types of biogas plants in the world. The Indian type or floating drum digester, the Chinese type or fixed doom digester or the Tubular balloon digester and the Bio-latrine digester.
“The Tubular Balloon digester is most appropriate and easier to operate. However, the farmer should have the following items and a construction fee of sh200.000,†he says.
PVC, plastic pipe 1/2 inch 10metres long, rubber bands- (these can be obtained from an old car tyre), a 3-litre plastic jelly can, 4 Jubilee clips, a garden hose pipe (3/4 inch), 3 Tee joints, 2 glove valves/ taps, 1-2 bags of cement, 80-200 bricks, sand (3-6 wheel barrows), poles and local materials for thatching the roof, two helpers, a cooking appliance (gas stove) and a biogas lamp.
You also will need to have at least 1-2 exotic cow or 2-3 cross-breed cows for fresh dung and good amount of water for mixing the dung.