Technical evaluation and standardization of biogas plants in Ghana

This book reviews the nature of biogas promotion strategies as well as biogas digester designs widely disseminated in Ghana and other countries. It looks into challenges facing the design, construction, and operation of biogas plants in Ghana based on a field survey of 50 biogas installations, and interviews with both end-users and service providers. From the survey, sanitation was found to be the main motivational reason for people using biogas plants. Only 22 of the surveyed installations were functioning satisfactorily. Reasons for non-functioning include non-availability of dung, breakdown of balloon gasholders, absence of maintenance services, lack of operational knowledge, gas leakages, and bad odour in toilet chambers of biolatrines. Design problems observed involved the wrong orientation of inlet pipes of biolatrine digesters and the faulty interconnection between tandem digesters. This book recommends the development of a national programme focussing on three major areas - sanitation, energy, and organic fertilizer production. It further advocates for the promotion of standardized digesters for large scale promotion in Ghana.