American Journal of Chemical Engineering

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Simulation of Electricity Generation from Biogas for Ugandan Rural Community

Received: 03 August 2017    Accepted: 24 August 2017    Published: 29 June 2018
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Abstract

One of Uganda’s greatest hindrances to development is lack of access to energy. In rural areas where about 84% of the population lives, access to electricity is less than 2% a situation that lives rural communities to continue depending on biomass based fuels in forms of firewood and charcoal. This paper proposes the utilization of biogas to generate off-grid electricity for the rural community. A simulation of electricity generation from biogas for Ugandan rural community using Aspen HYSYS V8.8 for computational modeling was developed on thermodynamic concepts. Two systems were considered; a gas-turbine (GT) only system and a GT-with steam turbine (ST) in the bottom cycle, based on 71% methane - 29% carbon dioxide as inlet biogas composition. The results obtained showed that it is possible to obtain 2.5MW of electricity using a gas turbine (GT) only system and an additional 1MW when a combined cycle system (GT-ST) is considered. An analysis of the exhaust gases showed that there are negligible amounts of gaseous pollutant though not in amounts that could constitute environmental threats when disposed to the atmosphere. In order to meet the system’s need, a cattle head count of 13740 is estimated to be maintained for a daily supply of 670 tons of cow manure.

DOI 10.11648/j.ajche.20180603.11
Published in American Journal of Chemical Engineering (Volume 6, Issue 3, May 2018)
Page(s) 37-43
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Biogas, Biomass, Power Generation, Simulation

References
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Author Information
  • Department of Chemistry, Kyambogo University, Kampala, Uganda

  • Department of Chemistry, Kyambogo University, Kampala, Uganda

  • Department of Chemistry, Kyambogo University, Kampala, Uganda

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  • APA Style

    Aldo Okullo, Noah Tibasiima, Joshua Barasa. (2018). Simulation of Electricity Generation from Biogas for Ugandan Rural Community. American Journal of Chemical Engineering, 6(3), 37-43. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajche.20180603.11

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    Aldo Okullo; Noah Tibasiima; Joshua Barasa. Simulation of Electricity Generation from Biogas for Ugandan Rural Community. Am. J. Chem. Eng. 2018, 6(3), 37-43. doi: 10.11648/j.ajche.20180603.11

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    AMA Style

    Aldo Okullo, Noah Tibasiima, Joshua Barasa. Simulation of Electricity Generation from Biogas for Ugandan Rural Community. Am J Chem Eng. 2018;6(3):37-43. doi: 10.11648/j.ajche.20180603.11

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ajche.20180603.11,
      author = {Aldo Okullo and Noah Tibasiima and Joshua Barasa},
      title = {Simulation of Electricity Generation from Biogas for Ugandan Rural Community},
      journal = {American Journal of Chemical Engineering},
      volume = {6},
      number = {3},
      pages = {37-43},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ajche.20180603.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajche.20180603.11},
      eprint = {https://download.sciencepg.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajche.20180603.11},
      abstract = {One of Uganda’s greatest hindrances to development is lack of access to energy. In rural areas where about 84% of the population lives, access to electricity is less than 2% a situation that lives rural communities to continue depending on biomass based fuels in forms of firewood and charcoal. This paper proposes the utilization of biogas to generate off-grid electricity for the rural community. A simulation of electricity generation from biogas for Ugandan rural community using Aspen HYSYS V8.8 for computational modeling was developed on thermodynamic concepts. Two systems were considered; a gas-turbine (GT) only system and a GT-with steam turbine (ST) in the bottom cycle, based on 71% methane - 29% carbon dioxide as inlet biogas composition. The results obtained showed that it is possible to obtain 2.5MW of electricity using a gas turbine (GT) only system and an additional 1MW when a combined cycle system (GT-ST) is considered. An analysis of the exhaust gases showed that there are negligible amounts of gaseous pollutant though not in amounts that could constitute environmental threats when disposed to the atmosphere. In order to meet the system’s need, a cattle head count of 13740 is estimated to be maintained for a daily supply of 670 tons of cow manure.},
     year = {2018}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Simulation of Electricity Generation from Biogas for Ugandan Rural Community
    AU  - Aldo Okullo
    AU  - Noah Tibasiima
    AU  - Joshua Barasa
    Y1  - 2018/06/29
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    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajche.20180603.11
    DO  - 10.11648/j.ajche.20180603.11
    T2  - American Journal of Chemical Engineering
    JF  - American Journal of Chemical Engineering
    JO  - American Journal of Chemical Engineering
    SP  - 37
    EP  - 43
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2330-8613
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajche.20180603.11
    AB  - One of Uganda’s greatest hindrances to development is lack of access to energy. In rural areas where about 84% of the population lives, access to electricity is less than 2% a situation that lives rural communities to continue depending on biomass based fuels in forms of firewood and charcoal. This paper proposes the utilization of biogas to generate off-grid electricity for the rural community. A simulation of electricity generation from biogas for Ugandan rural community using Aspen HYSYS V8.8 for computational modeling was developed on thermodynamic concepts. Two systems were considered; a gas-turbine (GT) only system and a GT-with steam turbine (ST) in the bottom cycle, based on 71% methane - 29% carbon dioxide as inlet biogas composition. The results obtained showed that it is possible to obtain 2.5MW of electricity using a gas turbine (GT) only system and an additional 1MW when a combined cycle system (GT-ST) is considered. An analysis of the exhaust gases showed that there are negligible amounts of gaseous pollutant though not in amounts that could constitute environmental threats when disposed to the atmosphere. In order to meet the system’s need, a cattle head count of 13740 is estimated to be maintained for a daily supply of 670 tons of cow manure.
    VL  - 6
    IS  - 3
    ER  - 

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