Domestic biogas digester as a means of wood fuel consumption reduction in the rural households of Wondo Genet, Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

This paper examines the role of biogas technology in saving wood and evaluates whether biogas digesters are likely to help reduce fuel wood consumption in the rural households of Wondo Genet, Southern Ethiopia. A household survey, oral interviews, key informant interviews and a field experiment were carried out on biogas user and non-user households. A multi-stage sampling technique was then applied to select 200 interviewees from biogas user and non-user households. The mean daily consumption of charcoal, firewood, agricultural residues and animal dung by the biogas users were estimated at 0.80, 4.07, 0.88 and 0.91 kg, respectively, while the mean daily charcoal, firewood, agricultural residues and animal dung consumption by non-biogas users were estimated at 1.20, 6.33, 1.38 and 0.98 kg, respectively. The annual charcoal and firewood consumption of the biogas users was estimated to be 288 kg and 1465.2 kg per household, respectively, whereas non-biogas users consume 432 kg charcoal and 2278.8 kg firewood per household each year. A paired t-test analysis indicated that there is a significant difference (P < 0.05) in the level of consumption of firewood, charcoal and agricultural residues between biogas user and non-user households. However, the amount of dung cake consumed did not show significance difference (p > 0.05) between these household types.

Keywords:

• Domestic biogas
• digester
• biogas users
• wood fuel
• household energy

Acknowledgments

The author acknowledges the Energy and Irrigation Office of Wondo Genet District for their assistance in facilitating the field work. The author is also grateful to the surveyed households and biogas experts for providing primary data on wood fuel usage, and for field work assistance.

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.