8/8/2019 New Low Cost Biogas Technology Introduced in
Tanzania
1/2
NEW LOW COST BIOGAS TECHNOLOGY INTRODUCED IN TANZANIA(Godfrey
Sanga, Manager Sustainable Energy, TaTEDO)
A new technology of producing biogas has beenintroduced in
Tanzania with the aim of providing analternative for cooking
energy. The new technology,popularly known as VACVINA, has been
introduced inTanzania from Vietnam through TaTEDO. Theintroduction
of the new biogas technology has beenfacilitated by partnership
programme Enabling Accessto Sustainable Energy (EASE) whose
objective is topromote (investments in) energy access in rural
areasin ways that can contribute to poverty reduction.
Two biogas experts from Vietnam, Mr. Pham VamThanh and Mr.
Nguyen Duc Thinh have supportedTaTEDO in capacity building by
conducting atechnical training, which included both theory
andpractical sessions. More than 15 trainees, fromKilimanjaro,
Tanga, Coast and Dar es Salaam, wereinvolved the one-month
training, which took at theTaTEDO Sustainable Energy and
Development Centre(SEDC).
Participants of the VACVINA biogas training and Vietnamese
experts atTaTEDOs Sustainable Energy Development Centre, SEDC, on
the openingday in July 2008.
During the training, two biogas plants were built; oneat the
centre and another at a nearby residence. Mr.Thanh and Mr. Thinh
both work with Centre for RuralCommunities Research and
Development, CCRD,which has an impressive track record in the
construction of VACVINA biogas plants in Vietnam.
Mr. Thanh says that family size biogas plants havebeen around in
Vietnam since early twentieth centuryand have continuously been
improved to provide asafe, easy-to-use solution to treat animal and
humanwaste while producing environmentally friendlycooking fuel. It
has been very received by farmers inVietnam and has maintained a
good success rate.More than 10,000 plants have been built in
Vietnamsince 1998.
The VACVINA model is an improvement of previousbiogas designs
namely fixed dome and plastic bagplants. Mr. Thanh explained the
advantages of theVACVINA models to be simple construction
requirement with high tolerance to construction flawsand
defects, long life expectancy and automatic scamcontrol mechanism
which enables the plant toproduce the gas constantly.
The VACVINA models are also relatively lessexpensive than others
in terms of construction andmaintenance costs, and require minimum
spaces,which enable them to be built even in landconstrained areas
such as overcrowded compounds.Note that the VACVINA model is built
similar to septictank, which is a widespread construction
technology.The biogas plants consist of a flat top
rectangularunderground digestion chamber with external plasticgas
reservoir.
Biogas is a mixture of different gas componentsproduced from
anaerobic digestion of organicmatters. The main component of the
biogas fromsuch reaction is the methane gas (CH ) The Biogas
Apart from biogas, biogas plants also releaseseffluents, which
can be used as good quality organicfertilizer. One cow can produce
up to 1 m3 of gas perday which is sufficient to cook one meal.
Construction work for the VACVINA biogas plant at SEDC.
Constructionsmilar to septic tanks.
Utilization of biogas will reduce over dependence onfirewood and
charcoal for cooking and henceexcessive consumption of fuel wood.
Where there issufficient supply of feedstock; especially
animalmanure and water, biogas can replace woodfuels up
to 50%. Currently, cooking energy is obtained fromcharcoal and
firewood, which together contribute toaround 80% of the total
energy consumption inTanzania, equivalent to 18 million tones of
oilequivalent (TOE).
TaTEDO will support biogas entrepreneurs in thecountry to
introduce adapted VACVINA models inTanzania though market
development in order toenable commercial dissemination of the
technologyat a large scale. More training courses will beorganized
in the future and a construction manualwill be developed and
published. Information onbiogas technicians who have been trained
can beobtained at TaTEDO.
VACVINA Biogas system; latrine can be incorporated to digester
instead ofbuilding a new septic tank for a toilet. Gas reservoir is
designed such that itreduces pressure of gas in the tank.
Although the technology has been well received inVietnam, TaTEDO
recognizes the need to adapt thetechnology to suit local conditions
and context.Among major adaptation will be to changeconstruction
materials in order to further lower theend user cost and to build a
more robust gas storagetanks.
It is hoped that the introduction of the VACVINAmodel with its
simple and cost effective design, willcontribute to sustainable
development of biogastechnology in Tanzania and large-scale uptake
and
use.
