Biogas technology and integrated development
Practical Action
is being increasingly recognised as a waste disposal technology by the local
government authorities for whom garbage is a severe environmental problem.
Three garbage based biogas plants have already been contructed and are
serving as demonstration units.
Conclusions
At the national level in Sri Lanka, biogas technology has a number of benefits
such as:
• waste getting cleared (the environmental management tool)
• a useful fuel gas being generated (the energy generation tool)
• the production of the digestate as a by-product, which is considered to be
an excellent soil conditioner (the fertiliser option)
Biogas technology can play a vital role in solving some of the major problems
faced by the Sri Lankan societies of the present and future. Biogas utilisation
should happen in a more systematic way, as it is fast becoming one of multiple
end-uses in Sri Lanka. The planners should not buy into prevalent images such
as biogas being not a desirable source of energy as it is from waste, or that it is
an energy source only for the rural poor etc.
To emphasis on the acceptability of biogas - on which the whole success of its
potential contribution lies- one cannot do better than quote from Sasse1988 - "
A technology is appropriate if it gains acceptance… Biogas technology is
extremely appropriate to the ecological and economic demands of the future.
Biogas technology is progressive. …. The biogas plant must be a symbol of
social advancement. "This excerpt is to emphasise the importance of the
technology.
References:
• Prof. K.D.N. Weerasinghe, L.A.Y Dharshanie de Silva (University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka)
"Assessment of gas liberation of Sri Lankan & Chinese type biogas generators and their
by-product utility" 1999
• Ananda Dissanayake "Review of Biogas Project of Intermediate Technology - Sri Lanka"
1999
• Energy Conservation Fund, Sri Lanka "Sri Lanka Energy Balance 1998 (1st draft copy)"
• Integrating Energy and Environmental Management through Biogas - A country Review
1996
1 National Engineering Research and Development Centre
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