The Biogas Digester in the DIVAGRI project is a single-stage, solar-supported system. It operates anaerobically to break down organic wastes into usable products. The products include methane gas, water, and organic fertilizer.
This digester was developed by a team of researchers from the University of Cape Coast (UCC) using locally available materials like stones, wood, cement, iron rods, nails, PVC pipes, copper pipes, and their accessories1. The digester has a manual stirrer to mix the influent and the inoculum for better degradability.
A solar thermal heating system is installed in the digester, connected to a locally made heat exchanger for heating the digester to a thermophilic condition of 55°C1. This is done with the rationale of disinfecting the digestate for agricultural purposes since the digestate is nutrient-rich.
The biogas produced will be converted into electricity using a combined heat and power (CHP) generator for the smallholder farmer to use at home. It could also be sold to the national grid or neighbours who may need the product.
References
- Bryant, I.M. and Afitiri, A.R., 2021. Household willingness to adopt a single-stage solar-supported hyper-thermophilic anaerobic biogas digester in Ghana. Energy, Sustainability and Society, 11(1), p.16.
- Bryant, I.M., 2019. Development of single-stage solar-supported hyper-thermophilic anaerobic reactor for biogas production and disinfection of black water: a pilot case study of Terterkessim slum, Elmina–Ghana (Doctoral dissertation, BTU Cottbus-Senftenbe
Resources

