The use of biogas as an energy and bio-fertilizer alternative

The collection and recycling of organic waste used to produce renewable energies and biofertilizers enriched with Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium (NPK) for disadvantaged households using local artificial intelligence around the protected areas of Kahuzi Biega National Parks and Virunga in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

M. Bulonze Chibaderhe Leonce is the Executive Director and Investigator Primary, The solution is for one structure named FEMAC Asbl, non-profit organization

The project aims to solve the problems of lack of clean energy and food insecurity in vulnerable households living around the national parks of Kahuzi Biega and Virunga. These communities do not have access to energy to prepare their food, light their homes, charge their phones or watch television in the 21st century; However, the DRC is full of potential rivers on which we can erect hydroelectric dams. People cut trees in search of embers to cope with the lack of energy. This situation creates deforestation and impacts climate change and the disruption of agricultural seasons. Food insecurity affects around 80% of the population also due to low agricultural productivity, lack of land to cultivate and this creates conflicts. However, our project aims to provide access to clean energy and bio-fertilizers enriched with nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (NPK) to 60% of these disadvantaged communities in this part of the DRC in order to increase their agricultural production. At the regional or global level, our project will help reduce pressure on forests, protected areas, and biodiversity, which will help maintain atmospheric and environmental balance through stable photosynthesis.

The project targets populations living around two national parks including Kahuzi Biega and Virunga in the East of the Democratic Republic of Congo. These are mainly the indigenous peoples and others who had settled on the edges of the parks in search of land to cultivate. As a project planner, we carried out initial assessments and a feasibility study for the promotion of bioenergy by targeting the methanization of organic waste which is numerous in their environment and which can provide them with clean energy at a reduced cost if we have the backers who support us. We are going to build family digesters, two large digesters on the edge of each park for electricity distribution to accessible communities for the biogas produced. We will bottle gas in 12kg bottles to sell to households in the city who have gas stoves in order to create wealth for these underprivileged populations. For the digests which are non-degradable residues that can be used for spreading, we will set up a technical service to enrich these materials with other only minerals such as nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium in order to obtain bio-fertilizers to use in the field to reduce hunger.

The public goods provided by the project are:

- The technology of anaerobic digestion itself,

- The tools that will be used in artificial intelligence,

- A library containing books dealing with anaerobic digestion will also be installed for student researchers,

- As well as electricity and locally produced biofertilizers.

It will produce tangible impacts for the target communities at the economic, social, political, environmental, and health levels.

Economically,it will reduce the cost of purchasing a bag of embers which currently costs 25 to 35usd, the populations will save the money they spend to charge their phones at the public booths and will have access to a sufficient amount of food because of biofertilizers introduced into their agriculture.

At the social level, the project will reduce the spirit of energy dependence, ie reduce the demands for embers that households make among themselves. There will be a change of mentality in the treatment of waste whatever its nature.

At the political level,the project will allow the establishment of solid standards for the management and recycling of the waste in society to which everyone must comply,

At the environmental level, using software,communities will have access to precise information on the polluting emissions that affect the planet and the quantities of carbon dioxide avoided by the project, the pressure on forests will decrease, the areas and biodiversity that we protect will renew and thus reduce global warming. And finally, in terms of health,the project will also reduce water-borne, pandemic, and even cancer-causing diseases.

Our project is designed for 10 years. So the dimensioning of the impact will depend on the quantity of energies and biofertilizers produced, their initial costs in relation to the cost price. But we expect the cost of a kWh to be as cheap as possible in relation to the purchasing power of the beneficiaries. If, for example, we sell 50kwh at USD 15 per household and in favor of 10,000 households per month, while the expenditure made by the populations to obtain embers goes to USD 25 per month and per household; this means that the project has a positive impact on the lives of the beneficiary populations.

In a year, we will assess the capacity of the technology to solve the problems of the beneficiary populations. And in the next three years, we will then assess the impact on the various improvements recorded and the new initiatives that will be created by the projects. And finally, in ten years when our projection is situated, we will assess the number of people who will have initiated their own anaerobic digestion projects in the community and in the sub-region.

Regarding the renewable energies produced by the project,we will assess its progress from the quality and quantity of energy produced,we will follow up on the procedure of collection, recycling, and fermentation in the digester, we will follow, the retention time in the tank, the temperature and the content of biogas produced in order to have an overall idea of the number of kWh to be produced. And a particular follow-up on the expenses carried out also.

indicators:

- the number of people who have benefited from the energy,

- the difference in cost between the purchase of embers and a kWh of gas produced in households.

- the policies decreed by the beneficiaries for the protection of the works,

- statistics of CO2 avoided.

With regard to biofertilizers from enriched digestates, we will measure its success by analyzing the potentially unfavorable consequences of spreading the digestate, in particular around fields, and by only offering land on which spreading will not be a problem.

indicators

- the number of people who fill the biofertilizer

- the number of fields that have been affected by the quality of the biofertilizer produced,

- the number of investors who have joined the project locally.

The only obstacle that I expect is the lack of funds necessary to start the activities. The other obstacles are minimal.

CENER (Council of National Experts in Renewable Energies) and OPDGEL

With the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, many communities have lost hope and are facing several health, economic and environmental difficulties. We believe that Trinity Challenge can help us overcome these challenges through its expertise and by providing us with a small fund to enable us to run community upliftment activities. Specifically, your support will allow us to build these anaerobic digestion plants at the level of disadvantaged households in order to solve the problems of lack of energy, your support will help us to produce biofertilizers and train young people and adults. on anaerobic digestion, technology to reduce food insecurity.

We wish if these organizations are members of Trinity challenge (1.Europe-Africa Research and Innovation call on Renewable Energy, 2. Environment Research and Education Foundation 3. GET.Invest and others that I do not mention here). We believe that if Trinity Challenge can advocate and contact them, it can help us overcome these challenges and uplift these communities.
We would like to work with them to materialize some projects together.