A new report “Domestic Biogas in a changing China” was published by IIED, the International Institute for Environment and Development, analyzing the results achieved by the huge Chinese biogas expansion program since 2003, as well as the future challenges for the domestic biogas sector in China and other countries.
China’s domestic biogas programme has now reached around 100 million people, supplying a quarter of rural households with biogas digesters. This technology allows households to convert manure into clean cooking fuel and organic fertiliser, providing an effective and non-polluting alternative to fossil fuels, firewood, and chemical fertilisers, while cutting carbon dioxide emissions by up to 61 million tonnes per year.
However domestic biogas development in China is now facing problems which are limiting its further expansion. With centralised livestock farms becoming more and more frequent, manure as traditional animal husbandry at individual households is less available than in the past. Furthermore the cost of rural labour is increasing as well as migration away from villages and liquefied petroleum gas and electricity are becoming more available and competitive in rural areas. The proportion of biogas digesters reported to be in regular use varies widely across villages, from less than 30 per cent to over 90 per cent.
For these and other detailed reasons the report states that China needs to review its biogas sector to ensure it remains appropriate for rural areas. In order to achieve this some recommendations are indicated, such as assessing the current actual performance and usability of domestic digesters, improving the availability of maintenance services (i.e. by introducing “social biogas services”), and developing a more cost-effective and “pro-poor” subsidy scheme.
The report concludes that China’s successfull experience can help other countries understand some of the challenges and
opportunities offered by biogas. Shifting energy supply of rural populations from fossil to local renewable energy sources like biogas would bring huge economic and environmental impacts in terms of energy security at national, or
even global levels. Therefore overcoming these various barriers is essential to a robust and sustainable development of the biogas sector.
Download the full report and policy briefing here.
