DEVELOPMENT OF A ROBUST ANAEROBIC BIOGAS SYSTEM FOR USE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
Impact/Purpose:
The goal of this project is to develop and improve small-scale biogas digesters for families living in the rural areas of Central America, although these digesters can have applications for low-income families in the United States as well. Specifically, the team aims to implement a biogas digester that is more robust, meaning that it will have less sources of failure than previous systems, in an effort to make these digesters more reliable for its users.
Description:
Technology that utilizes renewable resources is by no means groundbreaking in today’s advanced society. Even people that live the most primitive of lifestyles have sustainable technology available to them, such as the anaerobic biogas digester, which converts waste and organic matter into methane and a nutrient-rich effluent. The methane can be burned for cooking and heating, thereby replacing the burning of wood, and the effluent can be used as a natural fertilizer for plants, thereby replacing harsh chemical fertilizers used to increase crop yield. Such technology, however, has not become standard in homes in which it would be both feasible and beneficial, which is largely due to the added upkeep that biogas digesters entail.
Record Details:
Record Type:PROJECT(
ABSTRACT
)
Start Date:08/15/2010
Completion Date:08/14/2011
Record ID:
249536
Keywords:
ALTERNATIVE ENERGY, ANIMAL WASTE TO ENERGY, DEVELOPING NATION,
Related Organizations:
Role
:OWNER
Organization Name
:UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Citation
:Ann Arbor
State
:MI
Zip Code
:48109
Project Information:
Approach
:The foundation of this research is built upon this team’s field experiences in rural Nicaragua. The most pressing problem for the implementation of biogas digesters in this area is the time and effort necessary to maintain the system coupled with poor digester performance, as the families find little incentive for spending time on maintenance if the payoff, which is the biogas output in this case, is low. Consequently, digesters frequently fail due to neglect.
Cost
:$9,888.00
Research Component
:Pollution Prevention/Sustainable Development
Approach
:The foundation of this research is built upon this team’s field experiences in rural Nicaragua. The most pressing problem for the implementation of biogas digesters in this area is the time and effort necessary to maintain the system coupled with poor digester performance, as the families find little incentive for spending time on maintenance if the payoff, which is the biogas output in this case, is low. Consequently, digesters frequently fail due to neglect.
Cost
:$9,888.00
Research Component
:P3 Challenge Area - Energy
Project IDs:
ID Code
:SU834724
Project type
:EPA Grant