Community based biogas enterprises in Ghana

Abstract

Ghana as a developing country has some challenges for the future. These challenges include an energy crisis, a high dependence on firewood and high levels of poverty. Biogas technology has the potential to make a contribution in solving these challenges, but is not yet widely implemented in Ghana. For this reason, the aim of this thesis was to find ways to increase the use of biogas technology in Ghana. To do this, a business model for community based biogas enterprises was created which was based on Ghanaian cultural values and by that included the most appropriate complexity and scale of biogas technology. To arrive at a representation of Ghanaian culture, a field study was done in which thirteen SMEs were visited. Data were collected by in-depth interviews and participatory observation. For the cultural analysis, a model was made based on cultural dimensions by Hofstede and Trompenaars. The model consisted of six dimensions which were given a score between one to five. Based on these scores, the degree in which a civil society and innovative entrepreneurship are present in Ghana were determined. A multi criteria analysis was done to find the most appropriate form of biogas technology in a Ghanaian business setting. The feedstock availability of an average Ghanaian community was assessed to find the most feasible alternative and determine the size of the digester. Various value propositions were compared on their economic viability by calculating their NPV, IRR and DPB. The major findings of this research were that the garage-type digester was the most appropriate digester design, fed with only crop residues available from the community. For an average community size of 491 people, a digester size of 67 m3 would be needed. The best value proposition was concluded to be collecting all the available crop residues from within the community with a cargo tricycle, digesting the crop residues in a garage-type digester, using the produced biogas to generate electricity, selling it to the grid, and drying the digestate and selling it as organic fertilizer. The cultural analysis and discussion showed that additional training for the workforce would be required in cooperation, dialogue, proper work ethic, due planning and precision in labor.