DESIGN AND FINANCIAL FEASIBILITY OF THE SMALL-SCALE SIZE BIOGAS PLANTS

The least & developing countries rely heavily on firewood as a fuel source. Among several technologies, biogas, as a renewable technology, provides multiple benefits; locally and globally.People lack access to biogas plants due to inadequately qualified specialists and specialized companies in designing and constructing the plants. This paper mentioned the biogas compositionand briefly elaborated its application worldwide. It discussed the design criteria and parameters for sizing the biogas plants.It also discussed thoroughly the most two popular types (with design)of small-scale size biogas plants used in the developing countries, that are, floating drum and the fixed dome plants. The paper clearly explained the modified fixed-dome Chinese biogas plant named GGC-2047 model plant that is widely used in Nepal. It also gave a great overview of the advantages and drawbacks of these plants. In this paper, the design of the fixed-dome Chinese and GGC- 2047 model biogas plants were presented for example values, to get an insightful understanding of design for future use. The main input variables were chosen from operating ranges of these values via literature reviews/researchers data, and calculations were made based on selected values for each parameter. Obviously, the different input parameters will yield different outputs. Lastly, it described the concept and terminology used to access the financial analysis of the biogas plants. Moreover, it expounded how the financial indicators are computed, discussed, and analyzed to see if it is worth investing in a particular biogas project or not. This paper might help as a document for sizing the fixed-dome Chinese and GGC-2047 model biogas plants technically and economically.