scholarly journals Bottled Biogas—An Opportunity for Clean Cooking in Ghana and Uganda

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (13) ◽  
pp. 3856
Author(s):  
Mairi J. Black ◽  
Amitava Roy ◽  
Edson Twinomunuji ◽  
Francis Kemausuor ◽  
Richard Oduro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Energy Recovery ◽  
Organic Waste ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Effective Management ◽  
Grid Infrastructure ◽  
Electricity Grid ◽  
Novel Technologies

Anaerobic digestion (AD) can bring benefits in terms of effective management of organic waste, recovery of nutrients and energy recovery, and is consistent with circular economy principles. AD has been promoted and implemented worldwide, but at widely differing scales, influenced by the availability and location of feedstocks. In developing countries, feedstock arises from small- to medium-scale agriculture and agro-processing operations, as well as from household and municipal waste. Biogas produced from residues from agro-processing facilities may be used for on-site heat and power, but the lack of a gas and electricity grid infrastructure can limit opportunities to distribute gas or generated electricity to wider users. This paper presents the findings of the first study to consider novel technologies for small-scale and low-cost biogas clean-up into biomethane, and compression into small bottles, suitable as a clean cooking fuel. The paper reports on the initial evaluation of biomethane for cooking in Ghana and Uganda.

MECHANIZATION OF POTATO GRADING ON SMALL-SCALE FARMS: A CASE STUDY FROM PERU

2005 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. P. BUTLER ◽  
T. BERNET ◽  
K. MANRIQUE
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Market Integration ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Farming System ◽  
Agricultural Products ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Critical Aspect ◽  
Small Scale Farmers ◽  
Important Cash Crop

Potatoes are an important cash crop for small-scale producers worldwide. The move away from subsistence to commercialized farming, combined with the rapid growth in demand for processed agricultural products in developing countries, implies that small-scale farmers and researchers alike must begin to respond to these market changes and consider post-harvest treatment as a critical aspect of the potato farming system. This paper presents and assesses a low cost potato-grading machine that was designed explicitly to enable small-scale potato growers to sort tubers by size for supply to commercial processors. The results of ten experiments reveal that the machine achieves an accuracy of sort similar to commercially available graders. The machine, which uses parallel conical rollers, has the capacity to grade different tuber shapes and to adjust sorting classes, making it suitable for locations with high potato diversity. Its relatively low cost suggests that an improved and adapted version of this machine might enhance market integration of small-scale potato producers not only in Peru, but in other developing countries as well.

Design and implementation of an automatic message-routing system for low-cost telemedicine

2003 ◽  
Vol 9 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 44-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Wootton
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Median Time ◽  
Developing World ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Interquartile Range ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Message Routing ◽  
Design And Implementation ◽  
Time Zones ◽  
Median Interval

summary Email has been used for some years as a low-cost telemedicine medium to provide support for developing countries. However, all operations have been relatively small scale and fairly labour intensive to administer. A scalable, automatic message-routing system was constructed which automates many of the tasks. During a four-month study period in 2002, 485 messages were processed automatically. There were 31 referrals from eight hospitals in three countries. These referrals were handled by 25 volunteer specialists from a panel of 42. Two system operators, located 10 time zones apart, managed the system. The median time from receipt of a new referral to its allocation to a specialist was 1.0 days (interquartile range 0.7–2.4). The median interval between allocation and first reply was 0.7 days (interquartile range 0.3–2.3). Automatic message handling solves many of the problems of manual email telemedicine systems and represents a potentially scalable way of doing low-cost telemedicine in the developing world.

Performance Analysis and Modeling of Different Volumetric Expanders for Small-Scale Organic Rankine Cycles

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefano Clemente ◽  
Diego Micheli ◽  
Mauro Reini ◽  
Rodolfo Taccani
Keyword(s):  
Energy Recovery ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
High Efficiency ◽  
Waste Heat ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Economic Feasibility ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Energy Field ◽  
Organic Rankine Cycles

In the last years one of the main research topics in energy field is represented by Organic Rankine Cycles (ORCs), due to their applicability in energy recovery from waste heat and in distributed combined heat and power (CHP) generation, particularly in small and micro scale systems. One of the key devices of the cycle is the expander: it must have a limited cost (like all the other components, in order to ensure the economic feasibility), but also a high efficiency, since the temperature of the heat source is often low and then the cycle efficiency is inherently scarce. In the first part of this paper a literature review on various positive-displacement expanders is presented, in order to outline their performances and their application field. Then, the numerical model of a volumetric reciprocating expander is implemented. This model, and another one previously developed to simulate scroll expanders, is combined with a thermodynamic model of the whole ORC system, so that a comparison between the two technologies can be carried out. The results confirm the possibility of realizing small scale energy recovery and cogeneration (CHP) systems with acceptable electrical efficiency also adopting low-cost components, directly derived from large scale industrial components.

Development of Small-Scale Multi-Effect Solar Still

Solar Energy ◽  
2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuichi Yamaguchi ◽  
Haruki Sato
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Conceptual Design ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Solar Still ◽  
Solar Distillation ◽  
Multi Stage

The diffusion of solar distillation systems is necessary to solve a global problem on serious shortage of safe water resources in many developing countries such as Bangladesh. The solar still is required to be low cost, to have reliability for the safety and long durability, to be free from maintenance without any expendable supplies, having high performance, and it should be an environmentally friend device working without any fossil fuel. The economical balance to develop stills for residential purpose is considered. A 10 kg·day−1-scale solar still was developed and the characteristics are introduced. A conceptual design of a new 20–50 kg·day−1-scale multi-stage solar still is also introduced in this paper.

scholarly journals Material and Energy Recovery from the Final Disposal of Organic Waste

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (24) ◽  
pp. 8459
Author(s):  
Gabriele Di Giacomo
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Solar Energy ◽  
Energy Recovery ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Organic Waste ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Final Disposal

While receiving nearly 10,000 times the energy that we presently need from the Sun, almost 600 EJ/a, developed and developing countries continue to mostly use fossil fuels even though the technologies available and the adaptation of individual and collective behaviours could make it possible to use only solar energy [...]

scholarly journals Bio-Inspired, Low-Cost, Self-Regulating Valves for Drip Irrigation in Developing Countries

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pawel J. Zimoch ◽  
Eliott Tixier ◽  
Abhijit Joshi ◽  
A. E. Hosoi ◽  
Amos G. Winter
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Drip Irrigation ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Applied Pressure ◽  
Nonlinear Behavior ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Irrigation Systems ◽  
Thin Walled Structures ◽  
Thin Walled

We use nonlinear behavior of thin-walled structures — an approach inspired by biological systems (the human airway, for example) — to address one of the most important problems facing subsistence farmers in developing countries: lack of access to inexpensive, water-efficient irrigation systems. An effective way of delivering water to crops is through a network of emitters, with up to 85% of the water delivered being absorbed by plants. However, of the 140 million hectares of cropped land in India alone, only 61 million are irrigated and just 5 million through drip irrigation. This is, in part, due to the relatively high cost of drip irrigation. The main cost comes from the requirement to pump the water at relatively high pressure (>1bar), to minimize the effect of uneven terrain and viscous losses in the network, and to ensure that each plant receives the same amount of water. Using a prototype, we demonstrate that the pressure required to drive the system can be reduced significantly by using thin-walled structures to design emitters with completely passive self-regulation that activates at approximately 0.1bar. This reduction in driving pressure could help bring the price of drip irrigation systems from several thousand dollars to approximately $300, which is within reach of small-scale farmers. Using order-of-magnitude calculations, we show that due to increased sensitivity of the proposed design to the applied pressure differential, a pressure compensating valve for drip irrigation could be built without using costly silicone membranes.

Removal of nutrients from Organic Liquid Agricultural Waste using filamentous algae.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gonzalo Flores-Morales ◽  
Mónica Díaz ◽  
Patricia Arancibia-Avila ◽  
Michelle Muñoz-Carrasco ◽  
Pamela Jara-Zapata ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Organic Waste ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Organic Liquid ◽  
Agricultural Waste ◽  
Filamentous Algae ◽  
Tertiary Treatment ◽  
Nutrient Reduction ◽  
Algae Removal ◽  
Algae Growth ◽  
Waste Effluents

Abstract A feasibility analysis of tertiary treatment for Organic Liquid Agricultural Waste is presented using filamentous algae belonging to the genus Cladophora sp. as an alternative to chemical tertiary treatment. The main advantages of tertiary treatments that use biological systems are the low cost investment and the minimal dependence on environmental variables. In this work we demonstrate that filamentous algae reduces the nutrient load of nitrate (circa 75%) and phosphate (circa 86%) from the organic waste effluents coming from dairy farms after nine days of culture, with the added advantage being that after the treatment period, algae removal can be achieved by simple procedures. Currently, the organic wastewater is discarded into fields and local streams. However, the algae can acquire value as a by-product since it has various uses as compost, cellulose, and biogas. A disadvantage of this system is that clean water must be used to achieve enough water transparency to allow algae growth. Even so, the nutrient reduction system of the organic effluents proposed is friendly to the ecosystem, compared to tertiary treatments that use chemicals to precipitate and collect nutrients such as nitrates and phosphates.

An integrated, small-scale agricultural model to aid developing countries

1984 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
James A. Tindall ◽  
Laren R. Robison ◽  
N. Paul Johnston ◽  
Von D. Jolley
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Small Scale
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