Development of biogas resources and technologies in Ghana, a survey

Due to rapid global population growth and urbanization, there is corresponding increasing demand for energy. This increasing demand has necessitated the need to explore alternative sources of energy

Awafo, E. A.; Agyeman, V. K.

2020

English

Due to rapid global population growth and urbanization, there is corresponding increasing demand for energy. This increasing demand has necessitated the need to explore alternative sources of energy. Besides the growing energy demand, issues of environmental protection and climate change have risen to the top of global politics, leading to increased interests in renewable energy sources. One of these renewable energy sources with very diverse applications is biogas. Biogas, like natural gas, can serve as cooking fuel, transportation fuel, and as source for electricity generation, making it a very versatile fuel. Biogas is produced from several organic feedstocks, using anaerobic digestion technology. The technology has not developed as expected in Ghana despite reported enormous feedstock potential mainly due to, lack of data on specific areas where feedstocks can be assessed and the corresponding specific biogas potential, among other reasons. This paper surveys specific areas across Ghana where the diverse biogas raw materials are concentrated. The paper also studies existing biogas technologies and their potential utilization in various economic sectors of Ghana where their application will have the highest socio-economic impact. Technical expertise and technology transfer options for the biogas technologies needed in Ghana were also assessed. The survey showed that the most common feedstock types, readily available in Ghana for anaerobic digestion are agricultural residues and food-processing residues, livestock manures, slaughterhouse wastes, municipal solid waste (organic fraction) and municipal sewage sludge. Agro-industries that process cassava waste, rice residues, palm oil residue, fruit processing waste and shea cake are the key agro industries with very high biomass feedstock potential in Ghana. Each of the different feedstock surveyed Due to rapid global population growth and urbanization, there is corresponding increasing demand for energy. This increasing demand has necessitated the need to explore alternative sources of energy. Besides the growing energy demand, issues of environmental protection and climate change have risen to the top of global politics, leading to increased interests in renewable energy sources. One of these renewable energy sources with very diverse applications is biogas. Biogas, like natural gas, can serve as cooking fuel, transportation fuel, and as source for electricity generation, making it a very versatile fuel. Biogas is produced from several organic feedstocks, using anaerobic digestion technology. The technology has not developed as expected in Ghana despite reported enormous feedstock potential mainly due to, lack of data on specific areas where feedstocks can be assessed and the corresponding specific biogas potential, among other reasons. This paper surveys specific areas across Ghana where the diverse biogas raw materials are concentrated. The paper also studies existing biogas technologies and their potential utilization in various economic sectors of Ghana where their application will have the highest socio-economic impact. Technical expertise and technology transfer options for the biogas technologies needed in Ghana were also assessed. The survey showed that the most common feedstock types, readily available in Ghana for anaerobic digestion are agricultural residues and food-processing residues, livestock manures, slaughterhouse wastes, municipal solid waste (organic fraction) and municipal sewage sludge. Agro-industries that process cassava waste, rice residues, palm oil residue, fruit processing waste and shea cake are the key agroindustries with very high biomass feedstock potential in Ghana. Each of the different feedstock surveyed showed methane potential in excess of 10,000,000 m3CH4 in each of the regions. The survey also showed that biogas plants in use in Ghana are either the small to medium scale (10 m3 to 100 m3) fixed-dome digester or the floating drum digesters and two functional industrial scale Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket (UASB) plants and the Ccontinuous Stirred Tank Reactor (CSTR). Some economic sectors that will be impacted from the dissemination of biogas technology are agriculture, waste management, energy and climate change, health and social benefits such as job creation and improved well-being. The paper concludes that there are skills and expertise in Ghana to manage small to medium scale biogas digesters, but on the industrial scale, there exists limited expertise in the design, installation, operation and maintenance of the plants.