The potential of using anaerobic digesters in developing countries

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-24-2022

Abstract

Developing countries are suffering from the negative effects of accumulating local waste and garbage, which increases the level of pollution, affects public health, and increases the incidence of epidemics. Moreover, it negatively affects the visual image of the neighborhoods. Egypt is one of these developing countries that has no clearly defined policies for organic waste (OW) management, which drains a large portion of the local economy and inflicts severe environmental hazards. The Egyptian environmental ministry stated that in 2018–2019, 14.3 Mt of organic waste was dumped in the dump field. The presented research intends to find a solution to get rid of organic waste (OW) and reuse it to generate energy that satisfies the neighbourhoods and turns them into sus- tainable neighborhoods. This study will demonstrate the potential of using anaerobic digesters (AD) for treating organic waste (OW) and turning the waste into gas and electricity as a sustainable technique for reusing the organic waste (OW) and protecting the environment. The presented study provides an estimation of the energy produced from using anaerobic digesters (AD) for treating organic waste (OW), with a focus on the economic aspects by using a quantitative method to measure the efficiency of anaerobic digesters (AD) in Egyptian neighborhoods. The results revealed that using anaerobic digesters (AD) tanks in Egyptian residential areas will produce 30,000 times more than the gas consumed by the residential sector and will satisfy 0.84% of the electricity needed. This non-stop energy generation will help in solving one of the major challenges facing developing countries, which is satisfying their energy needs and getting rid of their organic waste (OW). It will also decrease epidemics and the percentage of pollutants, especially in low-income areas with very weak medical services.

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