NAERLS –
WAAPP (Nigeria) – GAWAL Collaborative Effort:
Pushing Biogas Technology in Nigeria
Search
for alternative energy generation and consumption for both domestic and
commercial activities has been a major challenge especially in a developing
country like Nigeria. Several methods and procedures are being used to generate
energy, which is a livewire for human development. One of the most recent
energy researches that yielded a tangible result is the ‘bio- gas’ technology.
Biogas is produced through fermentation of animal waste and other biomass in a
digestion chamber. Biogas is a mixture of methane (45 to 70 %) and carbon
dioxide.
The
bio-gas technology is today famous in China and India because of the high
energy for small scale industries and domestic requirements of the population
especially in the rural areas. The Chinese people discovered they need great
amount of energy to run many of their country-side (cottage) industries at the
minimal cost in order to break even. Thus, the intensification of research in
this area by the Chinese government: the efforts have today yielded the result
of a bio organically managed gas generation technology.
The
bio-gas technology works for both the rural and urban dwellers. The
construction requires a piece of land where to cast a ‘bio-gas digester’ which
will house some amount of water and organic materials. The interaction between
the organic materials and the water allows for organic decomposition which
eventually generates body of clean gas ready for use. The digester is often
built adjacent to toilet, animal pen. The digester can equally be built around
the orchard for easy usage of waste fluid as manure.
In
Nigeria, the biogas technology has been limited to research works in
Universities and Research Centres where its generation and use were
investigated, verified and in most cases kept on shelves. However, in recent
time, West Africa Agricultural Productivity Programme (WAAPP-Nigeria) and Green
Agriculture West Africa Limited (GAWAL) are collaborating with the National
Agricultural Extension and Research Liaison Services (NAERLS) Ahmadu Bello
University Zaria to disseminate the biogas technology to farmers in Nigeria.
Already, biogas digesters were built in Enugu, Ondo, Edo, Kwara, Oyo, Plateau
states and Abuja for the biogas production. The plants are working efficiently.
These digesters were built with actively participation of rural dwellers,
notably farmers. The idea is to pass the awareness and the knowledge of the
technology to the beneficiaries thereby increasing its adoption.
Interestingly, the biogas
technology is simple; the biogas plant consists of two units; digester and gas
holder. The digester is an underground chamber that contains the animal waste
in the form of slum with a partition wall dividing it into semi-circular
compartments. Two slanting pipes are fitted to reach the bottom of the chamber
on either side of the partition wall acting as inlet and outlet pipe for the
system. The gas holder is a drum like
structure of mild stone, dips in the slurry and rests on suitable base inside
the digester.
The gas generation process occurs
in two stages; in the first stage, the organic substances contained in the
waste are acted upon by bacteria breaking up the material into chain of simple
acids. On the second stage, another kind of bacteria act on the acid to produce
methane and carbon dioxide. Generally, the gas plants are made in different
sizes ranging from 2 to 150 m3. The smallest size of 2 m3
requires 2 to 3 cows for the supply of cow dung. Gas volume of 0.037 m3
can be produced 1 kg of wet dung and cooking requirement of 0.227 m3 of gas per
person per day is needed while 0.425 m3 gas per horsepower – hour is
required for a motive power. The digester can equally be built
around the orchard for easy usage of waste fluid as manure. The sludge can is
used for fertilization of crops as organic manure. What a double advantage.
Biogas
is just a replacement to firewood. Firewood is becoming scarce and its
continuous use is causing deforestation. It is reported that Nigeria
loses over 350,000 ha annually to advancing desert; the visible sign of this
phenomenon is the gradual shift in vegetation from grasses, bushes and
occasional trees, to grass and bushes; and in the final stages, expansive areas
of desert-like sand. Thus, the use of
biogas as an alternative to firewood is a step to the right direction. It is hoped that the bio-gas
technology, if favorably adopted by many Nigerians will help resolve energy
crises being experienced by Nigerians. Invariably too, this will increase and
accelerate cottage industries that will boost the economy and provide jobs in
the rural areas. In this way, Nigeria will be able to check it rural urban
migration which has been linked by analyst to the menace of crimes in our
cities. The NAERLS engineers are already working on how to modify the Chinese
prototype for easy and increase adoption by Nigerians. The Chinese model that
is propagated by the WAAPP/NAERLS is 14 m3 that supply the energy
requirements for cooking and lightening and refrigeration three houses containing three families with
average of five members of each house hold. The 14 m3 capacity gas
plant requires up to four hundred thousand Naira to build. Usually, the amount
of energy need and number of resident connection determines the size of the
digester.
Considering
the dire need of energy in Nigeria, the biogas technology can facilitate the
taking up of cottage industries as foundation for rural development and poverty
alleviation. However, its promotion for wider adoption requires the active
financial support of both local and state governments. This might be a step
towards addressing massive unemployment in Nigeria.
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