“We were spending 1 billion Rwandan Francs to buy firewood annually. After we began using Biogas, we have reduced that amount by 85 percent.” Emmanuel Ndori the director of biogas production in Rwanda prisons said. Putting this percentage into the amount of money saved equals to 8,500 million Rwandan francs.

All of the country’s 14 prisons now harness biogas which constitutes 75% of their total power consumption needs. According to Inspector Ndori, by 2013 there will be no firewood use in Rwanda prisons any more, since 100% of prisons’ power needs will be generated from biogas.

Debating about the benefits of harnessing biogas goes far from just the financial savings made but also a number of other added advantages like;

Improved hygiene: Biogas is produced by combining toilet, kitchen and cow dung wastes into a digester. As this waste is put into the tight sealed reservoirs to scientifically decompose leaving no gap to let out the stinking smell like the normal toilets do.  No wonder the 1990s stinking smell that surrounded Kigali Prison disappeared to the extent that people nowadays hang out for a brochette and beer at Nyirangarama Mini Supermarket situated inside the prison.

Environmental friendly; Rwanda being a land of a thousand hills, the government chose not to allow anyone to tamper with trees, a decision that bravely solved the problem of landslides and led to a favorable climate. Rwanda prisons being among the larger plunders of trees, use of biogas greatly saved many trees.

Fertilizer as a byproduct; whereas the stinking toilets of most prisons would chase neighbors to re-locate, as of nowadays the component that would re-locate neighbors, attracts farmers to collect fertilizers. As the biogas is collected from the combined wastes, resulting sludge is further processed to produce fertilizers.

Biogas originates from bacteria in the process of bio-degradation of organic material (human, kitchen and cow wastes) under anaerobic (without air) conditions. In the absence of oxygen, anaerobic bacteria decompose organic matter and produce a gas mainly composed of methane (60%) and carbon dioxide called biogas. The calorific value of biogas is about 6 kWh/m3 -corresponds to about half a liter of diesel oil.

On top of introducing biogas production courses in institutions of learning like KIST and Tumba College, the government of Rwanda continues to greatly support utilization of biogas for both large and small scales. Individual citizens in need of harnessing biogas on a household level are funded 50% (300,000Rfrs) by the government.

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peter