Unlocking the full potential of biogas systems for sustainable energy production and climate solutions in rural communities

Abstract

Abstract On-site conversion of organic waste into biogas to satisfy consumer demand for direct primary energy usage has the potential to mitigate climate change in a highly trustworthy manner. Existing approaches usually ignore either the targeted supply of biogas in dynamic situations or methane slippage, especially where the goal is to achieve energy equality in developing areas, which has become the main obstacle to achieving the full co-benefits of organic waste conversion. Here, we describe an upgraded community biogas production and distribution system (CBPD) to achieve a biogas consumption-to-production ratio of close to 1 in rural or remote areas, compared with the actual performance of five current CBPD systems. Improvements in the practical operation of CBPD systems are proposed to better align out-of-step biogas flow rates on the plant-side with user-side demand. We also demonstrate that upgraded CBPDs can achieve universally high and competitive benefits under the prevailing climate conditions, and that national deployment of such systems in China would contribute a 3.77% reduction in carbon emissions towards meeting the 1.5°C global warming target set by the Paris Agreement.