Biogas technology in the third world: a multidisciplinary review.

Abstract

In response to the interest in biogas and other rural energy systems shown by a number of Asian researchers, the International Development Research Centre commissioned this state-of-the-art review so that it might form a basis of further discussions concerning the direction of future biogas research. This book, which is divided into three chapters, represents a multidisciplinary approach to the problem and attempts to review existing work rather than to champion particular solutions. The first chapter establishes in broad terms the energy options facing rural communities in the Third World and considers in detail just what is known about the technical aspects of biogas production. This is done by assembling details of known small-scale digester designs and by reviewing the literature to establish the technical parameters determining digester performance. A microapproach to the social and economic appraisal of rural technologies, which stresses both the need to examine technologies in their social context and the need to compare biogas investments with alternative uses of the resources available in specific rural locations, is presented in the second chapter. This approach is discussed in relation to a number of the better attempts that have been made to evaluate biogas. The third chapter complements themore » other two by presenting practical field experience. It is based on an extensive survey of a large number of biogas plants and their supporting infrastructure in India, Thialand, Indonesia, the Philippines, South Korea, and Japan.« less