The uptake of biogas technology is still low in the country despite its potential to provide clean energy, a scientist at the International Livestock Research Institute has said.
ILRI scientist Sonja Leitner said a study is underway to try and understand why many Kenyans are yet to embrace the technology, yet livestock is central in the farming system.
“Currently, we have about 22,000 biogas digesters in Kenya and about 30,000 in Ethiopia. The potential in subSaharan Africa is 32 million biodigesters," she said.
"There is a lot of research in Kenya and Ethiopia to try and understand the problems they are facing if there are incentives from the government to promote them.”
ILRI has a biogas digester research station that uses manure from livestock. The biogas can be used for cooking and generation of electricity as well as bio-slurry, fertiliser rich in nitrogen and phosphorus.
Leitner said they use the research station to test different manure and their potential to produce biogas. She said each of the two biogas units at the institute is $500 (Sh73,379).
“We are trying to find some solutions to make the system more sustainable and reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” she said.
Leitner said the cost of installing the biodigesters remain one of the hurdles. Other hurdles include insufficient government support, the general lack of demand and of awareness of the existence and benefits of biodigesters.
Biodigesters help to cut methane emissions while producing renewable energy.
It can help reduce methane and black carbon emissions while producing cleaner fuel for cooking, lighting, and electricity.
Leitner said one biogas system has the potential to save four and a half tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent from methane emission and avoided deforestation.
“A lot of households rely on firewood collection and if you have a biodigester, you do not have to go to the forest to collect firewood,” she said.
Leitner said a biodigester also helps to improve the air quality as it does not emit smoke.
She said air pollution kills more people than HIV and malaria combined.
The World Health Organization says approximately 19,000 people die each year in Kenya due to air pollution.
The 2022 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey indicates that 58 per cent of Kenyan households have electricity, including 90 per cent in urban households and 36 per cent in rural households.
KDHS says 24 per cent of the household population in Kenya has access to clean fuels and technologies for cooking, including stoves/cookers using electricity, LPG/natural gas/biogas, solar, and alcohol/ethanol.
Use of clean fuels and technology for cooking is substantially higher in urban areas than in rural areas at 59 per cent versus six per cent.
Economic Survey Report, 2022 indicates increasing cases of diseases of the respiratory system largely associated with air pollution.
The survey shows that cases handled in 2020 were 16,562,227 while in 2021, reported cases were 20,613,455 indicating an increase by 21.9 per cent.
Unep says residential pollution, mostly from cooking and heating using biomass, and generating electricity from fossil fuels for homes, and transport are the main human-made sources of fine particles.
Reliance on wood also increases air pollution in developing countries.
Statistics from the Kenya Forestry Research Institute show the country currently has an annual wood deficit of approximately 10.3 million m3.
Industrialisation and urbanisation due to population growth will increase demand of wood products to approximately 66 million m3 by 2030 thus tripling the wood deficit in the country.
Every year approximately 12 million hectares of forest are destroyed in Kenya.
This is same as losing forest cover equal to the size of 100 football pitches or more than 200,000 tree stamps daily.
The state, however, plans to grow 15 billion trees in the next 10 years at a cost of Sh600 billion.
Statistics from the government show that Kenya’s total greenhouse gas emissions have increased from 56.8 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 1995 to 93.7 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2015.
Projections showed that the emissions will hit 143 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2030 as the country pursues its Vision 2030 development agenda.
The 2015 emissions represent an increase of 65.2 per cent over the period and less than 0.1 per cent of the 2015 global emissions, including land use, land use change and forestry.
In 2015, the leading source of emissions was agriculture at 40 per cent of the total national emissions, mostly livestock enteric fermentation, manure left on pasture and agriculture and fertiliser application.
This was closely followed by land use, land use change and forestry at 38 per cent due to deforestation and energy, including transport at 18 per cent.
Kenya Demographic Health Survey 2023 says there are 3,355,407 exotic cattle in the country, 14,112,367 indigenous cattle, 17,129,606 sheep, 27,740,153 goats and 2,971,111 camels.
The survey says Eastern hosts 373,307 exotic cattle, 1,886,854 indigenous, 1,890,898 sheep, 4,729,057 goats and 248,634 camels.
Northeastern has 80,422 exotic cattle, 2,694,786 indigenous cattle, 4,264,155 sheep, 7,886,586 goats and 1,700,893 camels.
Experts say there are benefits associated with biodigesters.
This include the reduction of women’s labour time and exposure to wood smoke, avoided deforestation, reduction in traditional energy and chemical fertiliser expenditures for rural households, and improved management of livestock waste.
Globally, it is estimated that there are about 50 million biogas systems have been installed.
Most of the systems have been installed in countries such as Asia, with concentrations in China, India, Nepal, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Cambodia.
