Replacing traditional biomass for biogas in rural communities in Nepal ...

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Nepal with the more sustainable option of biogas produced using household biogas digesters. .... 2 University of Oxford, United Kingdom. 3 Instituto 17, Brazil.
Replacing traditional biomass for biogas in rural communities in Nepal: lessons learned from the Chinese model Lydia Jowitt2; Paribesh Khapung2; Ellie Ong2; Alessandro Sanches-Pereira1,3,*; Suani Teixeira Coelho1 * Corresponding author: [email protected] 1 USP University of São Paulo, Institute of Energy and Environment, Brazil 2 University of Oxford, United Kingdom 3 Instituto 17, Brazil

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the possibility of replacing traditional biomass in rural communities in Nepal with the more sustainable option of biogas produced using household biogas digesters. One example of the success of such a scheme is in China, where biogas digesters have already extensively replaced traditional biomass. Using biogas produced from household biogas digesters has many benefits in comparison to traditional biomass for the purposes of cooking. Household digesters can operate exclusively on livestock manure, agricultural residue, or household waste, resulting in an improvement in sanitation for the communities that use them. Our results show that the Nepalese biogas program can take some inspiration from that of the Chinese, but the organisations in charge must proceed with caution. Household biogas has the potential of being a vital tool in improving the quality of life in rural areas and transitioning the country into using an improved, centralised energy system. This could give Nepal the means to develop its access to clean cooking fuel. Keywords: Nepal; energy access; biogas, cooking fuel

PURPOSE OF THE WORK AND METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH The purpose of this work is investigate the possibility of replacing traditional biomass in rural communities in Nepal with the more sustainable option of biogas produced using household biogas digesters. One example of the success of such a scheme is in China, where biogas digesters have already extensively replaced traditional biomass. Using biogas produced from household biogas digesters has many benefits in comparison to traditional biomass for the purposes of cooking. Household digesters can operate exclusively on livestock manure, agricultural residue, or household waste, resulting in an improvement in sanitation for the communities that use them. Our approach is based on the archival research method. The following steps were carried out in the search: •  Defining database source: The database source chosen was ScienceDirect, a world-leading source of more than 3800 research publications. It is operated by the Anglo-Dutch publisher Elsevier, which ensured the high quality of research papers obtained. •  Delimitation of scope: The research material chosen were all published between 2006 and 2016 to ensure that the most recent advances in the field were included. •  Unit of Analysis: The unit of analysis was defined as one academic paper in English, which also included articles in press. This enabled the most recent findings to be included in the review. •  Classification context: Three analytical samples were defined. The first sample was a search on ScienceDirect using the keywords (“household” OR “domestic”) AND “biogas” AND “cooking”. The second sample restricted the search results to the journals rated the highest rating of Q1 in the SCImago Journal Rank (SJR rank) in the Energy category to ensure only the most reliable sources in the field were used. The third sample used the filters of China and Nepal to constrain the search to the countries in question. Fig. 1. is a visual representation of the number of papers in each of the samples.

SCIENTIFIC INNOVATION AND RELEVANCE Traditional biomass (fuelwood, animal dung, etc.) is still widely used in rural and low-income communities. Currently, around 2.7 billion people (one-third of the world’s population) rely on biomass. In many countries, biomass represents over 90% of household energy consumption. The widespread use of biomass, mainly for cooking and heating, is a result of its abundance and low cost. However, the use of traditional biomass presents a number of problems for communities. For example, burning biomass for cooking releases harmful chemicals and is a major contributor to indoor pollution. About 3.5 million people (mostly women and children) die prematurely every year because of exposure to indoor air pollution from biomass. Biomass also takes a long time to collect; in Nepal, many communities, especially the women and children, spend 3 hours per day collecting fuelwood. Additionally, the gathering of fuelwood may have negative environmental effects. It could add to deforestation, one of the largest contributors to global carbon emissions after fossil fuels. Other effects include land degradation and regional air pollution. In order to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030, a goal set by the United Nations (UN) for sustainable development aims at finding an alternative source of clean fuel for cooking. One potential and innovative option to meet this target, especially in rural areas, is a decentralised approach based on household-size biogas digesters.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION Our results show that the Nepalese biogas program can take some inspiration from that of the Chinese, but the organisations in charge must proceed with caution. Household biogas has the potential of being a vital tool in improving the quality of life in rural areas and transitioning the country into using an improved, centralised energy system. This could give Nepal the means to develop its access to clean cooking fuel. There is a strong involvement of the private sector in Nepal’s program, and a significant proportion of Nepal’s subsidies come from other nations, which can be risky and unsustainable. In contrast, China’s biogas subsidy program is heavily centralised. Following a pilot program, the Chinese central government implemented a centralised subsidy policy for rural biogas digesters in 2003, which the provincial government was expected to co-fund in order to apply for central government funding. However, in 2006 the policy was revised such that the local governments in western China and some counties in central China no longer had to provide subsidies to apply for funds from the central government, increasing the number of digesters in rural China by an annual increase of 16.1% from 2006 till 2010. Although the Chinese biogas program expanded rapidly due to this subsidy policy, a similar scheme in Nepal would not be feasible as there is a lack of government funds, and thus it would not be a realistic option. In addition, Nepal previously had issues with implementing subsidies due to a lack of transparency in the government, as a result it might be more favourable for Nepal to implement a system more detached from the government. Despite the unsustainability of foreign aid, and the risk associated with private companies and micro-finance institutes, it is likely that the current system of household biogas will have to continue through the shift to modern energy services in Nepal. China has already moved on to medium and large-scale biogas plants (MLBPs) after the transition from smallholder farming to the agriculture industrialisation. Beginning development in the 1950s, the number of biogas plants rapidly increased starting in the mid 1990s, reaching 27,000 plants in 2010. These plants are highly efficient, create jobs and can profit from heat extraction and power generation. Nepal can follow the same path of developing its energy sector once rural areas gain basic access to energy, and the development of communities is mobilised. However, issues such as market saturation in some areas needs to be dealt with to ensure all people have access to biogas. For example, it is possible to see in Fig. 2 that some districts in Nepal have more biogas digesters installed than their local potential can supply.

Fig. 1. Visual Representation of Literature Review Sampling Process

Fig. 2. Percentage of biogas potential achieved by district

In addition to data collected from research papers, secondary data has been collected on both China and Nepal on their use of household biogas on a provincial level from relevant nongovernmental organisations and governmental reports (e.g. Nepalese Central Bureau of Statistics). The study also had access to the China Family Panel Studies database to obtain primary data collected in the Chinese National surveys on cooking fuel used in households (China Family Panel Studies, 2010). This information, alongside economic, geographical and social indicators, can be used to compare similar provinces in both countries and evaluate the possibility of implementing Chinese biogas schemes in Nepal.

This indicates that there is an excess of biogas digesters being installed and a significant number are not being used. There are two possible reasons for this. People could have installed biogas digesters, and since then switched to another type of modern fuel, due to lack of feedstock for the digester, or a better alternative becoming available. Alternatively, digesters could have been damaged and not repaired, meaning their outputs were reduced or completely stopped. It is therefore important to plan an alternative funding structure such that biogas digesters are built only where there is sufficient feedstock, and families are financially encouraged to continue using them.

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