Global Strategy, Local Action with Biogas Production for Rural Energy Climate Change Impact Reduction

Abstract

Global climate change impact is predicted to affect various sectors including the energy demand and supply sectors respectively. Combating this impact will require adoption of both global strategy and localized actions. The use of low carbon strategy based on renewables is a global strategy, while waste management of biodegradable materials through the use anaerobic technology to meet energy demand is a local action. Nigeria is among the vulnerable countries to global climate change impact; this is even more aggravated by its dependence on fossil fuel usage as well as poor waste management, which two, contribute significantly to greenhouse gas emissions. This chapter presents analysis of purified compressed biogas production, a waste conversion option, as a local action to meet rural household energy demand and contribute to global strategy of reducing climate change impact. It discusses both technical and business model approaches to upscale a laboratory experimental procedure for biogas production through anaerobic digestion using vegetal wastes. It shows that using anaerobic technology can achieve efficient waste management and at the same time generate energy that can be used to achieve avoided emissions for climate change impact reduction. The study also concludes that upscaling the project will be sustainable for rural energy augmentation as it produces clean and renewable energy, reduces the use of fossil fuels, provides jobs for skilled and unskilled labor, and generates new return streams.