Cuban Family Harnesses Biogas and Promotes its Benefits — Global Issues

by Luis Brizuela (havana)Friday, April 26, 2024Inter Press Service

García and his spouse Iris Mejías organically develop all of the agricultural merchandise that make them self-sufficient, on the land round their dwelling within the semi-urban neighborhood of Sierra Maestra, within the municipality of Boyeros on the south aspect of Havana.

“I used to make use of a little bit urea, however due to the financial state of affairs it has develop into very tough to import this and different fertilizers. The bioproducts are a chance to make up for that scarcity and, in some circumstances, perform as pesticides,” García, a 62-year-old retired college professor who’s now devoted to his crops, instructed IPS.

Biol is the liquid effluent with a sure diploma of stabilization that comes out of the biodigester, as soon as the method of anaerobic digestion of natural matter, which incorporates animal manure, crop waste and/or liquid waste, has been accomplished. It’s wealthy in vitamins for crops and for restoring soil by fertigation.

García identified that the challenges of acquiring power and the necessity to course of manure prompted the set up of the geomembrane biodigester, which as of December 2023 offers about 4 cubic meters of biogas per day.

This is likely one of the three varieties of biodigesters most used at a small and medium scale in Cuba, along with the cell sort, often known as the Indian mannequin, and the fastened dome or Chinese language biodigester.

“I had learn a little bit about it and needed to have a biodigester. With some financial savings we determined to start out constructing one. Along with the help of our sons Alexis and Alexei, we had the backing and recommendation of José Antonio Guardado,” coordinator of the Biogas Customers Motion (MUB), stated García.

Based in 1983, the MUB brings collectively some 3,000 farmers who use this expertise on this Caribbean island nation of 11 million folks.

Biogas alternatives

Mejías, 59, stated that “with biogas you lose the concern of not having sufficient gasoline for cooking. It offers safety.”

Meiías, a academics at a preschool for the younger youngsters of working moms, says that when the financial disaster grew to become extra extreme within the Nineteen Nineties, she cooked with firewood, charcoal, kerosene and even coconut shells to arrange her household’s every day meals.

“When you prepare dinner with electrical tools, you depend upon the ability provide, or if in case you have a fuel cylinder (liquefied petroleum fuel), you are worried that it’s going to run out and you will not have a spare. In each circumstances the biodigester saves cash,” she stated.

Mejías stated it’s simpler to prepare dinner meals for home animals and warmth water “with out smut or smoke that makes it mandatory to scrub your hair daily or makes it tough to maintain your fingers.”

Research present that methane is a potent greenhouse fuel, with a warming energy 80 occasions larger than that of carbon dioxide (CO2).

Correct administration of the organic methane ensuing from the decomposition of agricultural residues and manure can generate worth and be a cheap resolution to keep away from water and soil contamination.

Due to this fact, its extraction and use as power, particularly in rural and semi-urban environments, could be a resolution to cut back electrical energy consumption and assist fight local weather change.

In line with García, the island might obtain larger power advantages if there have been clear incentives for the set up of biodigesters.

Though the acute home financial disaster has had a really unfavourable impression on the nationwide swine and cattle herd, “many dairies and pig farms have no idea what to do with the every day output of manure. The truth is, our biodigester is fed from close by services the place it’s piled up and so they give it to us without cost,” he stated.

Different incentives

Cuba has a biogas manufacturing potential of 615,595 cubic meters per 12 months from agricultural and industrial manufacturing, in response to the Bioenergy Atlas 2022.

That quantity represents 189,227 tons of oil equal per 12 months or 710,095 megawatt hours (MWh) per 12 months. Of the full, 63 % comes from agricultural manufacturing, he stated.

In García’s opinion, Cuba’s rural surroundings “is in a greater place to realize the specified power independence. However financial services can be mandatory, comparable to loans for the development of biodigesters, bonuses for folks to provide that power and entry to purchase lamps, pots and even fridges that use biogas.”

Of Cuba’s 11 million inhabitants, about 23 %, some 2.3 million folks, stay in rural areas, in response to official statistics.

Then again, it’s estimated that there are some 5,000 biodigesters on the island, though conservative estimates by specialists think about it attainable to increase the community to twenty,000 household items.

Specialists argue that the direct use of biogas is extra environment friendly than remodeling it into electrical energy.

A major share of Cuba’s 4 million households use electrical energy as the principle power supply for cooking and heating water for bathing, which represents about 40 % of consumption.

Cuba is a rustic extremely depending on gasoline imports.

Over the past 5 years, in parallel to the deterioration of the home financial state of affairs, the decline of the principle sources of overseas foreign money and the strengthening of the U.S. embargo, the authorities have confronted growing difficulties in assembly the demand for gasoline.

About 95 % of Cuba’s electrical energy era depends on fossil fuels. The federal government goals to extend clear sources from the present 5 % to round 30 % of electrical energy era by 2030.

“Think about what it could imply if not all, at the very least many of the homes within the Cuban countryside had a biodigester or photo voltaic panels. Any technique that encourages independence from the nationwide energy grid, or that gives power, can be very optimistic,” stated García.

In recent times, the worldwide Biomas-Cuba challenge (2009-2022) centered on serving to to know the significance of renewable power sources in rural environments, the position of on-farm biodigesters and waste remedy programs in swine services.

The initiative, financed by the Swiss Company for Growth and Cooperation (Cosude), was coordinated by the Indio Hatuey Experimental Station, a analysis middle connected to the College of the western province of Matanzas, and concerned associated establishments in a number of of the nation’s 15 provinces.

Ministerial Order 395 of the Ministry of Power and Mines of 2021 stipulated that every of Cuba’s 168 municipalities will need to have a biogas growth program and technique, and coordinate its administration and implementation with their respective provinces.

As well as, the non-governmental Cuban Society for the Promotion of Renewable Power Sources and Respect for the Surroundings (Cubasolar), along with the MUB, encourages coaching workshops and the recommendation of specialists.

Transferring in the direction of power independence

One of many aspirations of the García-Mejías household is to realize power sustainability for his or her dwelling and agricultural manufacturing.

“We foresee the development of a second biodigester, however this one could have a cell dome, which ought to present two cubic meters of biogas per day, however rather more effectively, and with a better stress. With a better quantity we are able to profit some neighbors,” García stated.

On the roof of their home, six 720-watt photo voltaic panels backed up by recovered batteries give them autonomy of roughly three hours of electrical energy within the occasion of an influence failure.

“We plan to put in a wind turbine, in addition to a photo voltaic heater manufactured from plastic pipes. We wish to arrange an indication space in the home to point out the benefits of renewable energies and reveal how all the things we do is finished utilizing these power sources,” stated the previous professor.

“We’d like a larger tradition and consciousness about renewable energies. There’s resistance amongst some locations and folks. Then again, there are the excessive costs which don’t foment the speedy enlargement of applied sciences and tools,” García stated when IPS requested him in his dwelling in regards to the obstacles to growing the family use of renewables.

“Folks hear in regards to the biodigester and suppose it is tough. It takes a little bit work, however then the advantages are many. There’s a lack of expertise within the media. Folks come to us in search of assist in constructing biodigesters. We additionally obtain college students, which opens up a chance for the brand new generations to develop up with the tradition of utilizing nature in a sustainable manner,” he added.

© Inter Press Service (2024) — All Rights ReservedOriginal supply: Inter Press Service

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