This project will concern a research about biogas in the town of Nigel, Gauteng South Africa. In three months time, research will be done about the different environments and farms, the needs of electricity in the region of Nigel and simple design of biogas digesters will be researched and made.
From the beginning of November till the end of January, a group of three students from the TU Delft will visit the community of farmers in Nigel, a town southeast of Johannesburg in the province of Gauteng, South Africa. The project will focus on three main areas.
First of all, research will be done about the amount of biogas available and the different types of biomess. The community of farmers contain farmers with different amount and types of animals, such as cattle and pigs. This results in lots of waste, which can be used as input for biogas installations.
To use the leftover from the cattle, a biogas digester can be built at the farms. However, not every farmer needs the same capacity. Therefore, the project group will do research in the different types of biogasdigester. We'll make a couple of simple designs, which will be easily adaptable.
Thirdly, there's a shortage of electricity in the region of Nigel. This can be partly solved by generating electricity through biodigesters. In order to know how much biogas needs to be produced, research needs to be done into the supply of energy needed. We'll visit big industries in the region of Nigel to find out how much electricity is needed to run their business. This will help to find out if the surplus of electricity produced by the biodigesters at the farm will be enough to fill the electricity shortage at the industries.