Businesses Look to Biogas for Advantages

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Monday, June 23, 2008

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Businesses Look to Biogas for Advantages

VIETNAM - As energy prices continue to soar and the world turns its attention to cleaner energy sources, biogas offers advantages for small business owners across Vietnam.

With his business dependent on a constant supply of electricity, animal breeder Nguyen The Ha is usually pretty worried this time of year.

As the summer approaches along with his busiest season, Ha is unusually calm this year. Although power outages may be inevitable, Ha can relax this summer thanks to a new electric generator fuelled by something Ha has in abundance: animal waste.

"When I learned about the biogas-electric generator created by Da Nang University’s Professor Bui Van Ga on VTV, I quickly realised that I needed it," said Ha, director of the Thanh Hoa-based Nam Khanh Company.

With his farm’s success at stake, Ha quickly made his way to Da Nang and asked the scientist to install the innovative generator. With biogas collected from animal waste already used for cooking, using the gas to fuel his generator made perfect sense.

"The waste produced by around 700 pigs and hundreds of animal breeds (chickens, infant ostriches, fish, porcupines) is so much that we can’t use it all for cooking," Ha explained. "We had to set the rest of the waste on fire to keep the area clean."

In Viet Nam, biogas - an alternative fuel for cooking - has been used widely since the 1980s. In the early 21st century it became more popular thanks to the assistance of developed countries working to alleviate green house effects. Viet Nam was honoured by the United Nations for its effort in environmental protection by developing biogas in 2006.

Biogas has historically been used in internal combustion engines. However, the use has been limited to large-sized engines which use gas extracted from dumping grounds or sewage. Until now, small-sized engines using biogas were uncommon.

"Converting small engines which used to run on diesel and petroleum into ones running on biogas is an important advancement for Viet Nam’s countryside," said Huynh Phuoc, Director of Da Nang’s Science and Technology Department. "Eighty per cent of the population lives in rural areas."

Phuoc explained that the national electricity grid hasn’t reached many remote, mountainous regions, and where it does reach prices are high. As every part of the country sees regular power outages, farmers often face difficulties in production.

To use biogas as an alternative to diesel engines, Bui Van Ga, director of Da Nang University, had to solve two problems: filtering impurities, (particularly H2S) and introducing a regulating kit to ensure stable electric current.

"If one of the two problems is not completely solved, the engine could technically run, but with some serious problems," Ga said. "Worse is that the engine’s life span is shortened. The loss caused by the broken-down machine would be higher than the benefit gained by saving energy."

With the regulator and filter made of popular materials, the technology is an affordable alternative for farmers.

This isn’t Ga’s first breakthrough in applying biogas to everyday use. He and his colleagues started researching gas-run engines in 1997. He was granted exclusive property rights by the National Office of Intellectual Property for the liquid petroleum gas (LPG) conversion kits he invented for motorcycles, which were not only cost effective but also environmentally friendly.

"Based on this success we continued to research applying biogas for stationary engines," he explained.

Ga worked with four researchers at Da Nang University’s Centre for Environmental Protection Studies. They received support from the Ministry of Education and Training as well as from Da Nang authorities for a total of VND120 million (US$7,500).

After all this work, according to Ga’s calculations, farmers can now use the waste from around 20 pigs to regularly power a small-sized electric generator.

Plan for the future

The filters and conversion kits are produced at the university’s centre for experimental vehicle engines. The research group plans to establish a production unit so that they can transfer the technology to convert LPG/gas motors and stationary engines.

"It’s still difficult to make research into reality because there are no domestic enterprises working to apply new research to production," Ga complained.

"Scientists are reluctant to commercialise their research. But if we don’t produce them ourselves how can we prove our work’s effectiveness?"

According to Ga, Toyota Corporation recently decided to support his group in their effort to multiply the model at every farm in rural areas throughout the country.

The Ministry of Education and Training also asked them to introduce the breakthrough at ASEAN’s science and technology programme to lend the model to other regional countries.

Ga’s group is co-operating with Japan’s Osaka Prefecture to research the possibility of extracting methane from biogas. Biogas could then be stored in ordinary gas storage containers with five times the capacity than present. Biogas could even one day be used in small-sized automobiles.

The breakthrough would realise Ga’s dream of soon seeing an entire generation of motors running on biogas, bringing a steady supply of electricity to every corner of the countryside.

TheBioenergySite News Desk