While not necessarily a topic to discuss in polite company, many experts believe that the future of sustainable energy lies in biogas generated from our own waste — and we’re not necessarily talking garbage or food scraps here.
In recent years, research around biogas — a biofuel mixture composed mainly of carbon dioxide and methane produced from the bacterial decomposition of organic waste — has been gaining traction, and technology in this field has been advancing.
“The cost of [photovoltaic] devices is comparatively high based on the poverty index of developing countries,” wrote a team of researchers from University of Johannesburg, South Africa, Covenant University Canaan land and Afe Babalola University in Nigeria. “60% of the world’s energy demand is required in developing countries whose current power generating capacity is unbelievably dismal.”
Nigeria, for example, is one of the most underpowered countries in the world, with projections indicating that current supply (in the range of 12,000 MW) falls 80% below the required production based on the current population.
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“The shift into animal waste such as poultry droppings and cattle dung has huge prospects, but it is not sustainable in the long term as rural farmers depend on it,” said the researchers. “The use of human excreta is the most available and sustainable due to the human population.”
