Page last updated 30/08/2018
The projects set up in China, India and Nepal continued effectively in different ways and are described in the Small-scale Rural Biogas Programmes. There is a useful video on You-Tube, supplied by Ashden. The technical weaknesses of the early Chinese project were overcome by the Biogas Research Centre in Chengdu. Quality standards were published. Technicians were trained to supervise the building of good quality plants. Many local agencies were still involved in the building of plants, but they had to use trained people. The programme did develop at a slower rate, but with a much lower failure rate. The rate has since increased again. The Indian programme became much less centralised, as groups adapted the fixed dome design for India. KVIC adapted by developing fibre reinforced plastic floating drums as an alternative to steel drums. Several designs of fixed dome plant, were developed, such as the Janata design (with a dome made from concrete) and Deenabandu design (with a dome made from bricks). As different NGOs and private companies manufactured these designs, quality became more variable. In Nepal, the Gobar Gas company, that had been set up to make biogas plants, was replaced by many smaller installation companies (between 40 and 50). However, quality control was maintained by BSP (Biogas Suport Programme set up under SNV). The plants that were built mainly used a standard fixed dome design based from the one developed by DCS (called the GGC 2047). BSP did careful follow-up work and found evidence that, for a time, 98% of plants were still working 5 years after they were built. As the programme has further developed this figure has unfortunately reduced. The three programmes were successful, because the respective governments offered subsidies. This  allowed the government to have central control of quality. The biogas training institute claims over 12 million plants in China, based on their records, although the total number of plants in China is now more than 40 million. The numbers in India are less clear, but records suggest more than 4 million plants. BSP (now Biogas Sector Partnership) in Nepal had detailed records for over 250,000 plants at the end of 2012 (with a claim of having more per head of population than anywhere else in the world). Biogas technology in Europe and the rest of the developed world went in a very different direction, based on sewage plant technology. Biogas plant designs were based on steel tanks, mounted on above ground foundations and had much larger volumes. A typical farm-scale digester in the developed world has a volume of 1000 m 3 . They are also seen as a way to process food wastes and food processing residues to energy and compost, as an alternative to putting them in land-fill. The German government set up an incentive scheme based on a Feed-in-Tariff (FiT) for electricity generated from anaerobic digestion. This encouraged the use of energy crops, which were grown specifically to feed to AD plants, such as fodder maize. Much larger plants (with volumes up to 100,000 m 3 ) were built, although the expected economies of scale were not realised. Experience and rule changes have led to a slow down in the programme and a greater number of smaller scale plants been built. Incentives for the development of anaerobic digestion systems have been launched in other countries in Europe and also elsewhere, such as in USA, Canada and Australia.  Anaerobic digestion systems in the developed world are seen as large, expensive to install and run, and needing high-tech equipment to operate. Much more information is available on the IEA Task 37 website, especially in a book they have published: “The Biogas Handbook”. More information on biogas technology in developing countries can be found in “Small-scale, Rural Biogas Programmes” and “Running a Biogas Programme.

Development of Biogas Technology

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Page last updated 30/08/2018
The projects set up in China, India and Nepal continued effectively in different ways and are described in the Small- scale Rural Biogas Programmes. There is a useful video on You-Tube, supplied by Ashden. The technical weaknesses of the early Chinese project were overcome by the Biogas Research Centre in Chengdu. Quality standards were published. Technicians were trained to supervise the building of good quality plants. Many local agencies were still involved in the building of plants, but they had to use trained people. The programme did develop at a slower rate, but with a much lower failure rate. The rate has since increased again. The Indian programme became much less centralised, as groups adapted the fixed dome design for India. KVIC adapted by developing fibre reinforced plastic floating drums as an alternative to steel drums. Several designs of fixed dome plant,  were developed, such as the Janata design (with a dome made from concrete) and Deenabandu design (with a dome made from bricks). As different NGOs and private companies manufactured these designs, quality became more variable. In Nepal, the Gobar Gas company, that had been set up to make biogas plants, was replaced by many smaller installation companies (between 40 and 50). However, quality control was maintained by BSP (Biogas Suport Programme set up under SNV). The plants that were built mainly used a standard fixed dome design based from the one developed by DCS (called the GGC 2047). BSP did careful follow-up work and found evidence that, for a time, 98% of plants were still working 5 years after they were built. As the programme has further developed this figure has unfortunately reduced. The three programmes were successful, because the respective governments offered subsidies. This  allowed the government to have central control of quality. The biogas training institute claims over 12 million plants in China, based on their records, although the total number of plants in China is now more than 40 million. The numbers in India are less clear, but records suggest more than 4 million plants. BSP (now Biogas Sector Partnership) in Nepal had detailed records for over 250,000 plants at the end of 2012 (with a claim of having more per head of population than anywhere else in the world). Biogas technology in Europe and the rest of the developed world went in a very different direction, based on sewage plant technology. Biogas plant designs were based on steel tanks, mounted on above ground foundations and had much larger volumes. A typical farm-scale digester in the developed world has a volume of 1000 m 3 . They are also seen as a way to process food wastes and food processing residues to energy and compost, as an alternative to putting them in land-fill. The German government set up an incentive scheme based on a Feed-in-Tariff (FiT) for electricity generated from anaerobic digestion. This encouraged the use of energy crops, which were grown specifically to feed to AD plants, such as fodder maize. Much larger plants (with volumes up to 100,000 m 3 ) were built, although the expected economies of scale were not realised. Experience and rule changes have led to a slow down in the programme and a greater number of smaller scale plants been built. Incentives for the development of anaerobic digestion systems have been launched in other countries in Europe and also elsewhere, such as in USA, Canada and Australia.  Anaerobic digestion systems in the developed world are seen as large, expensive to install and run, and needing high-tech equipment to operate. Much more information is available on the IEA Task 37 website, especially in a book they have published: “The Biogas Handbook”. More information on biogas technology in developing countries can be found in “Small-scale, Rural Biogas Programmes” and Running a Biogas Programme.

Development of

Biogas Technology

Building dome biogas plant in Nepasl Using biogas from dome plant in China Floating drum biogas plant in South India Building dome (Deenbandhu) plant in South India