Household biogas development in rural China: On policy support and other macro sustainable conditions

Feng, Yongzhong; Guo, Yang; Yang, Gaihe; Qin, Xiaowei; Song, Zilin

doi:10.1016/j.rser.2012.06.019

Cited by 71 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…Governmental policy support is the major driving force for the deployment of biogas in China. A total of US$3.8 billion is invested by the government for biogas deployment from 2003 to 2010 (Feng et al, 2012). In Kenya, it was difficult for farmers to afford biogas systems without subsides and respectively 46 and 57% of biogas plant owners received subsidies covering over 25% of the construction costs (Mwirigi et al, 2009).…”

Section: Feedstock Resources In Farm Ecosystem Economic Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, large scale deployment of decentralized biogas technology requires governmental policy support as the major driving force. The government invested a total of US$3.8 billion for biogas development from 2003 to 2010 (Feng et al, 2012). A number of digesters (186) currently operate commercially in the U.S. agriculture in which about 30% of these digesters co-digest other feedstocks with manure.…”

Section: Economic Barriersmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Decentralized Biogas Technology of Anaerobic Digestion and Farm Ecosystem: Opportunities and Challenges

Wang

2014

Front. Energy Res.

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Long-term economic and environmental concerns have resulted in a great amount of research on renewable sources of biomass and bioenergy to replace fossil fuels in the past decades. Decentralized biogas technology is one of the most potential technologies of biomass and bioenergy by using agricultural waste materials (e.g., animal manure, crop straw, and by-products from food industries) as feedstocks. By-products from biogas production, called digestate, are nutrient rich, which could potentially be reused as green fertilizers in agriculture, thereby providing a sustainable substitute for synthetic fertilizers for farm ecosystem. Thus, the biogas production of anaerobic digestion is win-win option for livestock and crop producers to address issues of waste management and energy supply, and to avoid contamination of surface and ground waters and emissions of odors and greenhouse gases. In this paper, we review biogas production technology and then evaluate environmental effects of digestate used as fertilizer. Finally, we discuss issues of deployment of decentralized biogas technology for farm ecosystem. Economic and technological barriers still exist for large scale deployment of biogas technology in rural region. Two national scale deployments in China and Nepal showed that the operational status of biogas digesters is not optimal and up to 50% of plants are non-functional after a short operation period regardless of the social and economic factors. Main barriers are a wide variation of feedstocks and environmental conditions (e.g., temperature) over space and time. It becomes clear that the experimental conditions of the pilot plants need to be adjusted and calibrated to the local feedstocks and climate. Also, more research needs to be done in cold fermentation technology. Thus, collaboration of all relevant designers, farmers, stakeholders, and regulators is proposed as the way forward, particularly as their complexity has been identified as the major hurdle to the implementation of decentralized biogas production, which can deliver beneficial synergies for the decentralized biogas production in rural region responsible for food production and waste management.

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Section: Feedstock Resources In Farm Ecosystem Economic Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Economic Barriersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Decentralized Biogas Technology of Anaerobic Digestion and Farm Ecosystem: Opportunities and Challenges

Wang

2014

Front. Energy Res.

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“…For this reason, RHB has been increasing in popularity in areas where smallholder farmers predominate, such as Southeast Asia, China and Africa. Considerable governmental funds and social capital have been invested in RHB in these regions [7][8][9]. For instance, the Chinese government regards RHB as a key solution to renewable energy generation in rural areas and has issued enormous stimulus policies ( Figure S1).…”

Section: Rural Household Biogas Deploymentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Greenhouse Gas Mitigation of Rural Household Biogas Systems in China: A Life Cycle Assessment

et al. 2017

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Rural household biogas (RHB) systems are at a crossroads in China, yet there has been a lack of holistic evaluation of their energy and climate (greenhouse gas mitigation) efficiency under typical operating conditions. We combined data from monitoring projects and questionnaire surveys across hundreds of households from two typical Chinese villages within a consequential life cycle assessment (LCA) framework to assess net GHG (greenhouse gas) mitigation by RHB systems operated in different contexts. We modelled biogas production, measured biogas losses and used survey data from biogas and non-biogas households to derive empirical RHB system substitution rates for energy and fertilizers. Our results indicate that poorly designed and operated RHB systems in northern regions of China may in fact increase farm household GHG emissions by an average of 2668 kg·CO 2 -eq·year −1 , compared with a net mitigation effect of 6336 kg·CO 2 -eq per household and year in southern regions. Manure treatment (104 and 8513 kg·CO 2 -eq mitigation) and biogas leakage (−533 and −2489 kg·CO 2 -eq emission) are the two most important factors affecting net GHG mitigation by RHB systems in northern and southern China, respectively. In contrast, construction (−173 and −305 kg·CO 2 -eq emission), energy substitution (−522 emission and 653 kg·CO 2 -eq mitigation) and nutrient substitution (−1544 and −37 kg·CO 2 -eq emission) made small contributions across the studied systems. In fact, survey data indicated that biogas households had higher energy and fertilizer use, implying no net substitution effect. Low biogas yields in the cold northern climate and poor maintenance services were cited as major reasons for RHB abandonment by farmers. We conclude that the design and management of RHB systems needs to be revised and better adapted to local climate (e.g., digester insulation) and household energy demand (biogas storage and micro power generators to avoid discharge of unburned biogas). More precise nutrient management planning could ensure that digestate nutrients are more effectively utilized to substitute synthetic fertilizers.

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“…The government of the country is also planning to produce biofuel using wood which constitutes 10.5% of Iran's land area, in order to supply the energy consumption in rural areas [51]. In the light of the fact that biofuel is much feasible and easier to distribute in rural and poor areas [52], it can be used as a main energy source in the rural areas of Turkey.…”

Section: Animal Waste 2350mentioning

confidence: 99%

Renewable Energy Scenarios as a Key for Sustainable Rural Area Applications in Turkey

Deniz¹,

Öncel²

2016

J Bioengineer & Biomedical Sci

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In order to reduce dependency on petroleum fuels, Turkey, a country located in Southeastern Europe and Southwestern Asia, in search of new energy sources like the other countries. Modern energy services can be considered as renewable energy technologies (RETs) which are sustainable and abundant in the country. However considering the total cost of RET production, renewable energy sources can be used not to replace the fossil fuels, but to supply energy requirement in rural areas, in order to decrease the imported energy resources that place a big burden on the economy. In this study, the renewable energy resources in Turkey were comparatively expressed, regards to the potential and current use. This paper was aimed to provide an overview of worldwide examples and projects for the use of renewable energy technologies that can also be applied in Turkey, which has a proportion of rural population, to increase the access to modern energy services in rural areas in the country. For these purposes, the rural and nationwide renewable energy productions were compared and the limitations and prospects were also discussed.

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Household biogas development in rural China: On policy support and other macro sustainable conditions

Cited by 71 publications

References 10 publications

Decentralized Biogas Technology of Anaerobic Digestion and Farm Ecosystem: Opportunities and Challenges

Decentralized Biogas Technology of Anaerobic Digestion and Farm Ecosystem: Opportunities and Challenges

Greenhouse Gas Mitigation of Rural Household Biogas Systems in China: A Life Cycle Assessment

Renewable Energy Scenarios as a Key for Sustainable Rural Area Applications in Turkey

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