Rural biogas generation

According to International Energy Agency (IEA) report, over 1.3 billion people all around the world still lack access to affordable and sustainable energy. Meanwhile, it was estimated that the energy demand will increase by 50% within the next decades due to population growth. In the global south, this situation is even worse, and only 58% of the urban population has access to energy. Furthermore, it was reported that over 600 million residents in the rural areas use charcoal and wood as dirty fuels for their daily energy production. Switching to the production of renewable and sustainable fuels, such as biogas from anaerobic digestion of organic wastes, would lead to a clear reduction in indoor air pollution and health improvements as well as time and costs savings in many cases. Biogas fuel benefits the entire community, as household heating and cooking are also significant sources of indoor air pollution.

On the one hand, addressing the challenges of providing access to affordable and sustainable energy are a highly complex and intertwined issue. On the other hand, the need for an improved efficiency give rise to off-grid implementation for affordable access and reduces carbon emissions. Therefore, this project aims to develop tailored and resilient treatment systems for rural communities in countries of the global south to convert biological waste streams generated, such as animal manure, crop residues, biowaste, and sewage sludge, into biogas for onsite use. This research is part of the TUM SEED Center and is going to establish several case studies demonstrating that even with relatively simple methods, a significant improvement of the living quality in rural areas can be achieved:

• Providing biogas as a renewable energy carrier for cooking, heating, chilling (of goods) and electricity generation,
• Mitigating deforestation and preventing indoor air pollution by replacing firewood by generated biogas including social benefits by rendering firewood collection unnecessary,
• Increasing the agricultural productivity by the application of organic fertilizers harvested from the biogas process,
• Reducing greenhouse gas emissions by a controlled release of methane from the organic waste streams in the digester.