TITLE:
Dissemination and Problems of African Biogas Technology
AUTHORS:
Cyimana Mulinda, Qichun Hu, Ke Pan
KEYWORDS:
African Biogas; Dissemination; Potential; Bottlenecks; Benefits
JOURNAL NAME:
Energy and Power Engineering,
Vol.5 No.8,
October
24,
2013
ABSTRACT: The present status of biogas technology in Africa was briefly reviewed focusing on biogas market potential, stake-holders, investments and bottlenecks. Africa is endowed with important biomass reserve considered as a potential for anaerobic digestion. However, the over reliance on wood and fossil fuels remains significantly overwhelming. This is due to the number of challenges in the field which led to underestimate at some extent the benefits of biogas technology. Unreliable and inefficient use of biomass fuel, which contributes to the greenhouse gas emissions still, has kept its preference in primary energy balance. Despite the huge potentialities and biomass resources for anaerobic digestion in Africa, the dissemination rate of biogas in Africa is struggling to meet biogas market demand. Nevertheless, there are a number of problems to address especially narrowing down the gap between biogas market demand and supply. This paper consists of an introduction and the status of the energy sector in Africa, and then discusses current dissemination of biogas development, finance and stakeholder contributions, challenges and a conclusion.