Biomass Programme  in Bangladesh ::

Location : Village – Char Aminul, Upazila – Shuborno Char, District – Noakhali.

Introduction:

Biogas can be source for  rural cooking in Bangladesh.  Agrarian based economy with fresh water eco-system, bio-diversity and deltaic floodplain entitled Bangladesh as green country.  Bangladesh having available renewable resources which can be tapped in rural areas, e.g, all typical biomass resources, cow dung, tree leafs, agricultural residue, straws, poultry/bird wastages, human excreta, rice husks, hyacinth etc. to produce biogas from family/community size biogas plants to provide cooking facilities for individual households and community level in rural areas.

Such an endeavor noticed in a village located far southern coastal district near Bay of Bengal. The owner of the house basically live in Dhaka (capital city) and he designated a caretaker ( Mr. Habibullah) to look after his agriculture farm house.

Biogas production :

Mr. Habibullah regularly collect  typical  agricultural wastes, which includes; straws, agriculture residues, cattle dung, poultry/bird litters/waste. Mr. Habibullah having knowledge to provide input ingredients/materials at inlet chamber for fermentation/digestion of wastages in biogas a digester,  in which 1.5 inch pipe connected with digester to provide gas to cooker.

Beside the biogas production , the plant can also produce slurry as bi-product which is an excellent organic fertilizer and provides environmental friendly soil fertility solution for agricultural farming.

There are two type of inlet with this biogas plant  a) This is straws inlet chamber

Straws pushing  at  this inlet chamber by stick  to  feed in   fermentation/digestion chamber

Straws pushing  at inlet chamber by stick to feed in   fermentation/digestion chamber

There are two type of inlet with this biogas plant  b) This inlet chamber Cow dung + water  being mixed  and drained to fermentation/digestion chamber

Pipe line over the  fermentation/digestion chamber connecting with cooker 

Biogas uses for cooking

 slurry as bi-product which is excellent organic fertilizer and provides sustainability in agriculture.     

Production capacity of the Biogas plant: The plant started producing biogas from January 1, 2008 with daily production capacity 4.8 cubic meter. At the beginning Mr. Habibullah provided 20 Kg's of agriculture residues mixing with same quality of water and he got biogas enough for cooking of 7 peoples for three times in a day,  moreover some residues still being remained as surplus. Currently he inserting agriculture residues in inlet chamber once in every 3/4  days and got same capacity of biogas which is enough for cooking 7 peoples in 3 times in a day.

The uses of Biogas : Biogas can be used for domestic cooking and electricity  generation( by gas generator).

Total cost of construction: 39, 000 ( Thirty Nine thousand) Taka, in which  7,000 Taka( seven Thousand ) subsidized by IDCOL and a 27,285 Taka taken loan from Grameen Shakti which payable as 1273 Taka monthly installation basis.

Observation : 70% of peoples in Bangladesh living in rural areas.  Biogas technology can smoothly be affordable to middle class families in rural areas of Bangladesh where abundance of biomass resources that learn from this plant. The technology is environmentally sound which can be sustainable, affordable and widely deployable to any remote corner of rural Bangladesh. Traditionally, the most highly and densely populated of rural villagers are still using firewood straws, agriculture residues, cattle dung, and tree leaf and contributing to deforestation, air pollution and causing health and environmental hazards in Bangladesh.  The traditional methods of burning biomass takes longer cooking time and produce health related problems in compared with  biogas based cooking. On the other hand most affordable way of producing biogas, organic fertilizer and electricity (by biogas generator) is already practiced, which based on available biomass resources in Bangladesh.

Conclusion : This type of endower can be popularized/replicated in all parts of Bangladesh by encouraging rural peoples and introducing soft loan ( preferably from NGO’s).

Fine More Biomass Programme :

National Domestic Biogas and Manure Programme in Bangladesh