The Kenya Bureau of Standards has developed farm and industrial biogas standards.
Kebs director of standards development and International trade Esther Ngari said biogas is an excellent source of energy for cooking, lighting and electricity generation.
“The potential has not been fully tapped. One of the reasons cited for the low success rates in innovation and dissemination of biogas technology is the lack of standards for the design and construction of biogas plants,” she said.
Ngari spoke during the opening of the biogas standards dissemination workshop in Nairobi.
“Biogas technology is one of the renewable energy resources that is being promoted in the country. There is technical potential for biogas in most areas of Kenya. The areas are in Nyanza, Western, and Central regions,” she said.
Ngari said biogas plants entail complex process engineering that places extensive demands on the right planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance.
This, Ngari said, calls for a guided approach on how to go about the aforementioned aspects of biogas plant construction while complying with applicable regulations on environmental protection, health and safety.
“Kebs has developed a code of practice (KS 2951:2022) applicable to farm and industrial scale biogas systems. The code of practice gives guidance on planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of farm and industrial scale anaerobic biogas systems,” she said.
The KS: 2951:2022 standards were gazetted on May 13 under the Kenya standards on Biogas systems code of practice for farm and industrial scale biogas systems.
Ngari said full implementation of this code of practice will ensure well-designed and constructed biogas plants that perform efficiently.
This will result in properly operated and maintained biogas plants that meet consumers’ energy needs, reduced health and safety hazards associated with gas leakages, and more innovation in the biogas industry.
The regulatory body will be marking this year’s World Standards Day on October 14 under the theme, shared vision for a better world.
United Nations Industrial Development Organisation national project coordinator Zacharia Munga said the demand for renewable energy has increased due to climate change.
“There is a growing need to shift to renewable sources of energy and biogas is one of the sources of renewable energy. The shift to renewable energy is also attributed to the need to manage waste, where people are moving to use waste as a resource for other useful purposes,” he said.
Francis Ochieng, a researcher and a lecturer of energy at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology said biogas use in Kenya is still low compared to the use of other sources of energy.
He attributed this to the lack of commercialisation of biogas in households.
“This means that biogas is generally consumed where it is being generated, unlike the other cooking fuels which are consumed at locations far from where they are generated or produced,” Ochieng said.
Edited by Kiilu Damaris
