Domestic Biogas CDM Projects
Domestic Biogas CDM Projects are feasible where non-renewable biomass used for cooking and heating water can be replaced with methane produced from cattle and kitchen waste. These projects provide rural women with a smoke free cooking environment, ridding them of the necessity to gather firewood and depend on irregular supply of kerosene through the public distribution system.
Sustainable Development
Biogas CDM Projects make measurable contribution to sustainable development of the poor and benefit their communities.
- Replacing traditional cook stoves with biogas will eliminate indoor air pollution and improve the health of women and children
- By converting dung to slurry, a large number of bacteria are destroyed, thus decreasing pathogen loads
- Biogas slurry manure is far superior to farm yard manure in NPK content. It reduces the use of chemical fertilizers and increases crop production
- Reduces pressure on natural forests and common property resources, thus arresting degradation of forests, deforestation, and leading habitat conservation
- Creates job opportunities to local communities
The use of biogas as a cooking fuel brings an improvement in the overall quality of life. It reduces the drudgery of rural women, who have easy access to energy at the turn of a knob. Time saved can be used by them to undertake activities outside the realm of their gender rote roles.
Carbon Revenues
Typically, a domestic biogas digester generates 2.7 to 3.5 tCO2-e per unit per annum. At € 20 per CER and an exchange rate of ₹ 70 this translates to a carbon revenue of ₹ 3,780 to ₹ 4,900 per unit each year of the 21 year long crediting period.
Though the primary objective of the CDM Project is to is to provide clean and smoke-free cooking environment to poor women in the villages, an additional objective is for them to benefit from carbon trading and get a regular and assured income from the sale of CERs they generate through the use of their Biogas Units. They get monetarily rewarded for not emitting harmful green house gasses into the atmosphere.
Implementation
Biogas CDM Project implementation involves 3 phases — construction, maintenance and monitoring the emission reduction (ER). All 3 tasks are carried out in identified villages for individual families named in the Project Design Document (PDD). Village CBOs play a vital role in the selection of participating families, assisting individual families during actual construction, and later in the long drawn out 21 year long monitoring phase.
Construction
- Selection of Participating Families
- Selection & Training of Masons
- Identifying Material Suppliers
- Actual Construction — i.e. Marking, Excavation, Supplying material and hardware; Concreting, brick work and plastering; Filling Gobar; Fixing pipes and stove; Fixing safety grills
- Commissioning
- Generating End User Agreements
Maintenance
- Logging Breakdowns & Repairs
- Setting up mutual assistance systems in the villages
- Conducting Repairs & Replacement
Monitoring
- Daily Usage Monitoring
- Generating Reports & Calculating Emission Reductions
- Validation by a DOE
- Issuance of CERs into the ETS