by Luis Brizuela (havana)Friday, April 26, 2024Inter Press Service
HAVANA, Apr 26 (IPS) – Simply to acquire a great fertilizer it was price constructing a biodigester, says Cuban farmer Alexis García, who proudly exhibits the greens in his household’s backyard, in addition to the big variety of fruit timber which have benefited from biol, the tip product of biogas know-how.
García and his spouse Iris Mejías organically develop all of the agricultural merchandise that make them self-sufficient, on the land round their residence 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 bit urea, however due to the financial state of affairs it has grow to be very tough to import this and different fertilizers. The bioproducts are a chance to make up for that scarcity and, in some instances, perform as pesticides,” García, a 62-year-old retired college professor who’s now devoted to his crops, informed 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 means of 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 sorts of biodigesters most used at a small and medium scale in Cuba, along with the cell sort, also called the Indian mannequin, and the fastened dome or Chinese language biodigester.
“I had learn a bit about it and needed to have a biodigester. With some financial savings we determined to begin 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), mentioned García.
Based in 1983, the MUB brings collectively some 3,000 farmers who use this know-how on this Caribbean island nation of 11 million individuals.
Biogas alternatives
Mejías, 59, mentioned that “with biogas you lose the worry of not having sufficient gas 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 Nineties, she cooked with firewood, charcoal, kerosene and even coconut shells to organize her household’s each day meals.
“If you happen to cook dinner with electrical gear, you depend upon the ability provide, or when you’ve got a gasoline cylinder (liquefied petroleum gasoline), you are concerned that it’ll run out and you will not have a spare. In each instances the biodigester saves cash,” she mentioned.
Mejías mentioned it’s simpler to cook dinner meals for home animals and warmth water “with out smut or smoke that makes it obligatory to clean your hair every single day or makes it tough to care for your palms.”
Research present that methane is a potent greenhouse gasoline, with a warming energy 80 occasions higher 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 answer 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 answer to scale back electrical energy consumption and assist fight local weather change.
Based on García, the island might obtain higher power advantages if there have been clear incentives for the set up of biodigesters.
Though the acute home financial disaster has had a really destructive influence on the nationwide swine and cattle herd, “many dairies and pig farms have no idea what to do with the each day output of manure. In truth, our biodigester is fed from close by services the place it’s piled up they usually give it to us at no cost,” he mentioned.
Different incentives
Cuba has a biogas manufacturing potential of 615,595 cubic meters per 12 months from agricultural and industrial manufacturing, based on 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 whole, 63 % comes from agricultural manufacturing, he mentioned.
In García’s opinion, Cuba’s rural setting “is in a greater place to realize the specified power independence. However financial services can be obligatory, corresponding to loans for the development of biodigesters, bonuses for individuals 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 individuals, reside in rural areas, based on official statistics.
However, it’s estimated that there are some 5,000 biodigesters on the island, though conservative estimates by specialists think about it potential to increase the community to twenty,000 household models.
Specialists argue that the direct use of biogas is extra environment friendly than reworking it into electrical energy.
A major share of Cuba’s 4 million households use electrical energy as the primary power supply for cooking and heating water for bathing, which represents about 40 % of consumption.
Cuba is a rustic extremely depending on gas imports.
Over the last 5 years, in parallel to the deterioration of the home financial state of affairs, the decline of the primary sources of overseas foreign money and the strengthening of the U.S. embargo, the authorities have confronted growing difficulties in assembly the demand for gas.
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 will imply if not all, at the 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,” mentioned García.
Lately, the worldwide Biomas-Cuba mission (2009-2022) targeted on serving to to grasp the significance of renewable power sources in rural environments, the function of on-farm biodigesters and waste therapy methods 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 heart 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 should 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.
Shifting in direction of power independence
One of many aspirations of the García-Mejías household is to realize power sustainability for his or her residence and agricultural manufacturing.
“We foresee the development of a second biodigester, however this one may have a cell dome, which ought to present two cubic meters of biogas per day, however far more effectively, and with the next strain. With the next quantity we are able to profit some neighbors,” García mentioned.
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 illustration space in the home to point out some great benefits of renewable energies and exhibit how the whole lot we do is completed utilizing these power sources,” mentioned the previous professor.
“We want a higher tradition and consciousness about renewable energies. There’s resistance amongst some locations and other people. However, there are the excessive costs which don’t foment the speedy enlargement of applied sciences and gear,” García mentioned when IPS requested him in his residence in regards to the obstacles to growing the family use of renewables.
“Individuals hear in regards to the biodigester and assume it is tough. It takes a bit work, however then the advantages are many. There’s a lack of know-how within the media. Individuals 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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