Track: Undergraduate Student Paper Competition

Abstract

The bottling of biogas, a renewable energy source that uses anaerobic organic waste digestion, improves the rural economy by consolidating the use of biogas. In remote areas in South Africa, new opportunities are emerging through reducing their living costs by self-producible fuel. Bottled raw biogas can be placed on the market as a fuel or for biogas upgrades. This lower-cost bottling device cost less than ZAR 5000 and can be used with low technical skills, in particular with respect to safety precautions. For various uses, including electricity generation, car charging, and heating, bottled upgraded biogas is used. The side product, slurry, is sold as a healthy fertilizer. The biogas bottling system motivates villagers to use their waste to generate biogas and allows new income opportunities by better management of organic waste while maintaining a hygienic lifestyle. The system is expected to run on average per unit of time with a bio-digester of 6 cubic meters square. This paper presents the development of a simple biogas filing machine concept to be used in rural areas of South Africa.