Title: Energy and environmental benefits of family biogas plants in India

Authors: Punam Singh; Pramod Singh; Haripriya Gundimeda

Addresses: Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400 076, India ' M/S Fusion SusTeknika Research Solutions, Udyam, Gokhale Road, Naupada, Thane (West), Mumbai, Maharashtra 400 506, India ' Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400 076, India

Abstract: The potential of family biogas plants in providing viable solutions for clean rural energy, indoor air quality, fast-depleting reserves of fossil fuels, and mitigating global warming impacts of residential cooking is widely acknowledged. As a result, many developing countries such as India, China, and Bangladesh have integrated family biogas plants in their national energy planning and policies. The main objective of this paper is to analyse the life cycle energy performance and global warming mitigation potential of fixed dome and floating drum biogas plants, two most popular designs used in India. The results indicate that global warming mitigation potential of dung-based fixed dome family biogas systems drop by −26% and −60%, when replacing liquefied petroleum gas and firewood supplied by renewable sources as cooking fuel. On the other hand, the performance of floating drum biogas system using household kitchen waste improves significantly with an increase in waste input quantity.

Keywords: household biogas systems; compact biogas energy systems; lifecycle energy efficiency; global warming; mitigation potential; GHG emissions; greenhouse gases; fixed dome digesters; floating drum biogas plants; family biogas plants; India; clean energy; rural energy; indoor air quality; residential cooking; dung based biogas; renewable energy; cooking fuel; household kitchen waste.

DOI: 10.1504/IJETP.2014.066881

International Journal of Energy Technology and Policy, 2014 Vol.10 No.3/4, pp.235 - 264

Received: 13 Apr 2014
Accepted: 07 Oct 2014
Published online: 24 Jan 2015 *

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