IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v13y2020i13p3356-d378808.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Potential Applications of Biogas Produced in Small-Scale UASB-Based Sewage Treatment Plants in Brazil

Author

Listed:
  • Fabiana Passos

    (Department of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Av. Antônio Carlos, 6627, Belo Horizonte 31270-901, Brazil)

  • Thiago Bressani-Ribeiro

    (Department of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Av. Antônio Carlos, 6627, Belo Horizonte 31270-901, Brazil)

  • Sonaly Rezende

    (Department of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Av. Antônio Carlos, 6627, Belo Horizonte 31270-901, Brazil)

  • Carlos A. L. Chernicharo

    (Department of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Av. Antônio Carlos, 6627, Belo Horizonte 31270-901, Brazil)

Abstract

Rural sanitation is still a challenge in developing countries, such as Brazil, where the majority population live with inadequate services, compromising public health and environmental safety. In this context, this study analyzed the demographic density of these rural agglomerations using secondary data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). The goal was to identify the possibilities associated with using small-scale upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactors for sewage treatment, mainly focusing on biogas production and its conversion into energy for cooking, water heating and sludge sanitization. Results showed that most rural agglomerations lacking the appropriate sewage treatment were predominant from 500 to 1500 inhabitants in both northern and southern Brazilian regions. The thermal energy available in the biogas would be enough to sanitize the whole amount of sludge produced in the sewage treatment plants (STPs), producing biosolids for agricultural purposes. Furthermore, the surplus of thermal energy (after sludge sanitization) could be routed for cooking (replacing LPG) and for water heating (replacing electricity) in the northern and southern regions, respectively. This would benefit more than 200,000 families throughout rural areas of the country. Besides the direct social gains derived from the practice of supplying biogas for domestic uses in the vicinity of the STPs, there would be tremendous indirect gains related to the avoidance of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Therefore, an anaerobic-based sewage treatment may improve public health conditions, life quality and generate added value products in Brazilian rural areas.

Suggested Citation

  • Fabiana Passos & Thiago Bressani-Ribeiro & Sonaly Rezende & Carlos A. L. Chernicharo, 2020. "Potential Applications of Biogas Produced in Small-Scale UASB-Based Sewage Treatment Plants in Brazil," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-12, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:13:p:3356-:d:378808
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/13/3356/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/13/3356/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Garfí, Marianna & Martí-Herrero, Jaime & Garwood, Anna & Ferrer, Ivet, 2016. "Household anaerobic digesters for biogas production in Latin America: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 599-614.
    2. Chen, Yu & Yang, Gaihe & Sweeney, Sandra & Feng, Yongzhong, 2010. "Household biogas use in rural China: A study of opportunities and constraints," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 545-549, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Łukasz Warguła & Mateusz Kukla & Piotr Lijewski & Michał Dobrzyński & Filip Markiewicz, 2020. "Influence of the Use of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) Systems in Woodchippers Powered by Small Engines on Exhaust Emissions and Operating Costs," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-17, November.
    2. Maria Cristina Collivignarelli & Alessandro Abbà & Francesca Maria Caccamo & Silvia Calatroni & Vincenzo Torretta & Ioannis A. Katsoyiannis & Marco Carnevale Miino & Elena Cristina Rada, 2021. "Applications of Up-Flow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket (UASB) and Characteristics of Its Microbial Community: A Review of Bibliometric Trend and Recent Findings," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(19), pages 1-25, September.
    3. Philomina Mamley Adantey Arthur & Yacouba Konaté & Boukary Sawadogo & Gideon Sagoe & Bismark Dwumfour-Asare & Issahaku Ahmed & Richard Bayitse & Kofi Ampomah-Benefo, 2023. "Evaluating the Potential of Renewable Energy Sources in a Full-Scale Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket Reactor Treating Municipal Wastewater in Ghana," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-17, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kasinath, Archana & Fudala-Ksiazek, Sylwia & Szopinska, Malgorzata & Bylinski, Hubert & Artichowicz, Wojciech & Remiszewska-Skwarek, Anna & Luczkiewicz, Aneta, 2021. "Biomass in biogas production: Pretreatment and codigestion," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    2. Huang, Xianlei & Wang, Shu & Shi, Zuliang & Fang, Linna & Yin, Changbin, 2022. "Challenges and strategies for biogas production in the circular agricultural waste utilization model: A case study in rural China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 241(C).
    3. Luo, Tao & Khoshnevisan, Benyamin & Huang, Ruyi & Chen, Qiu & Mei, Zili & Pan, Junting & Liu, Hongbin, 2020. "Analysis of revolution in decentralized biogas facilities caused by transition in Chinese rural areas," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    4. Ni, Ji-Qin, 2024. "A review of household and industrial anaerobic digestion in Asia: Biogas development and safety incidents," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    5. Wang, Jun & Xue, Qingwen & Guo, Ting & Mei, Zili & Long, Enshen & Wen, Qian & Huang, Wei & Luo, Tao & Huang, Ruyi, 2018. "A review on CFD simulating method for biogas fermentation material fluid," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 64-73.
    6. Luo, Erga & Yan, Ru & He, Yaping & Han, Zhen & Feng, Yiyu & Qian, Wenrong & Li, Jinkai, 2024. "Does biogas industrial policy promote the industrial transformation?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    7. Jaime Jaimes-Estévez & German Zafra & Jaime Martí-Herrero & Guillermo Pelaz & Antonio Morán & Alejandra Puentes & Christian Gomez & Liliana del Pilar Castro & Humberto Escalante Hernández, 2020. "Psychrophilic Full Scale Tubular Digester Operating over Eight Years: Complete Performance Evaluation and Microbiological Population," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-17, December.
    8. Deng, Yanfei & Xu, Jiuping & Liu, Ying & Mancl, Karen, 2014. "Biogas as a sustainable energy source in China: Regional development strategy application and decision making," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 294-303.
    9. Jun Hou & Weifeng Zhang & Pei Wang & Zhengxia Dou & Liwei Gao & David Styles, 2017. "Greenhouse Gas Mitigation of Rural Household Biogas Systems in China: A Life Cycle Assessment," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-14, February.
    10. Alberto Benato & Alarico Macor, 2019. "Italian Biogas Plants: Trend, Subsidies, Cost, Biogas Composition and Engine Emissions," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-31, March.
    11. Gaballah, Eid S. & Abdelkader, Tarek Kh & Luo, Shuai & Yuan, Qiaoxia & El-Fatah Abomohra, Abd, 2020. "Enhancement of biogas production by integrated solar heating system: A pilot study using tubular digester," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    12. Tavera-Ruiz, C. & Martí-Herrero, J. & Mendieta, O. & Jaimes-Estévez, J. & Gauthier-Maradei, P. & Azimov, U. & Escalante, H. & Castro, L., 2023. "Current understanding and perspectives on anaerobic digestion in developing countries: Colombia case study," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    13. Roubík, Hynek & Mazancová, Jana & Phung, Le Dinh & Banout, Jan, 2018. "Current approach to manure management for small-scale Southeast Asian farmers - Using Vietnamese biogas and non-biogas farms as an example," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 362-370.
    14. Sun, Dingqiang & Bai, Junfei & Qiu, Huanguang & Cai, Yaqing, 2014. "Impact of government subsidies on household biogas use in rural China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 748-756.
    15. Li, Kun & Liu, Ronghou & Sun, Chen, 2016. "A review of methane production from agricultural residues in China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 857-865.
    16. Awasthi, Mukesh Kumar & Ferreira, Jorge A. & Sirohi, Ranjna & Sarsaiya, Surendra & Khoshnevisan, Benyamin & Baladi, Samin & Sindhu, Raveendran & Binod, Parameswaran & Pandey, Ashok & Juneja, Ankita & , 2021. "A critical review on the development stage of biorefinery systems towards the management of apple processing-derived waste," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    17. Zheng, Lei & Cheng, Shikun & Han, Yanzhao & Wang, Min & Xiang, Yue & Guo, Jiali & Cai, Di & Mang, Heinz-Peter & Dong, Taili & Li, Zifu & Yan, Zhengxu & Men, Yu, 2020. "Bio-natural gas industry in China: Current status and development," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    18. He, Guizhen & Bluemling, Bettina & Mol, Arthur P.J. & Zhang, Lei & Lu, Yonglong, 2013. "Comparing centralized and decentralized bio-energy systems in rural China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 34-43.
    19. Krause, Max J. & Detwiler, Natalie & Schwarber, Amy & McCauley, Margaret, 2022. "An evaluation of solar thermal heating to support a freeze-thaw anaerobic digestion system for human waste treatment in subarctic environments," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 198(C), pages 618-625.
    20. Li, Changjiang & Liao, Yuncheng & Wen, Xiaoxia & Wang, Yangfeng & Yang, Fei, 2015. "The development and countermeasures of household biogas in northwest grain for green project areas of China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 835-846.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:13:p:3356-:d:378808. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.