DOMESTICATION OF TUBULAR POLYETHYLENE BIOGAS DIGESTER TECHNOLOGY IN MALAWI

Abstract

Effective development and promotion of biogas technology can offer numerous social, economic and ecological benefits to Malawi. However, development and adoption of biogas technology in Malawi has to a larger extent been constrained by locally unaffordable biogas digester designs. This study was conducted to assess the possibility of constructing low-cost tubular polyethylene biogas digesters locally and also to assess their performance under Malawian environmental and feed material conditions. The study showed that it was possible to construct tubular polyethylene digesters from locally available materials in Malawi. The constructed digesters were also able to produce biogas of flammable quality at local mean ambient temperatures of as low as 18 °C. The results of the study are generally encouraging because they indicate that tubular polyethylene biogas digester technology can be done in Malawi. However, effective domestication of the technology in Malawi will still require further development of local biogas technology research capacity.