"Can use biogas as a fuel" - Biogas Expert Asian Tribune

Colombo, 27 July, (Asiantribune.com): A Sri Lankan bio-energy expert Parakrama Jayasingha says Sri Lanka can produce sufficient biogas quantity to meet the present transport fuel needs. He said biogas is a mixture of methane, carbon dioxide and traces of other gases .carbon dioxide and the trace gases could be removed by simple process.
“Methane gas thus produced is very similar to ‘Natural gas ‘used in many countries for many different applications including transport vehicles.
Methane extracted from biogas is extensively used in Sweden for transport applications in cars, busses and trains,” said Mr.Jayasingha.
The raw material needed to generate biogas is wastes produced in the agricultural and livestock sectors.
With government decision to achieve self-sufficiency in milk, large quantities of cow dung would be available .The fodder requirements for the livestock could be met from the surplus rice straw from the rice cultivation and gliricidia foliage from energy plantations.
Municipal garbage dumps could also be a source for extraction of biogas .In fact the management of Blomendal garbage site has done preliminary investigations to extract biogas out of this dump. It is proposed to conduct demonstrations trials on a vehicle for the use of compressed methane extracted from biogas as the fuel in a conventional ‘CNG Vehicle ‘.
He said the total potential for biogas generation utilizing wastes in Sri Lanka is large enough to meet almost all the present transport fuel needs. It is proposed that the government should pursue the policy of expansion on the dairy industry and the extraction and use of methane from the waste generated in the livestock industry as transport fuel.
He said the transport sector is the single largest consumer of imported petroleum .A total quantity of 1.8 million tones of petroleum fuels including 10,000 tones of LPG are consumed annually by this sector. Unlike stationery energy conservation devices, movable devices are compelled to use liquid or gaseous fuels.
The use of solid fuels such as wood and charcoal used in transport vehicles during World War II was discontinued once the availability of liquid fuels was restored with the end of the war.
The annual foreign exchange expended on the fuel needs of the transport sector alone is over US$ 1000 million .This exceeds Sri Lanka’s total export earnings of major traditional agricultural crops of tea, rubber and coconut. Hence very high priority should be given to address the fuel needs of this sector.
- Asian Tribune -