Building the Green Village based on Biomass Energy in Guatemala (I): Preliminary Study of Biomass and Environment

Abstract

In much of rural areas in developing countries, families still rely on unsustainable burning of fuelwood for energy source, which causes many environmental and health problems. Rural communities in Guatemala make no exception in this regard - heavy dependence on fuelwood by Guatemalan rural families is related to fast rate of deforestation and respiratory diseases of rural population. In this research, we explore the possibility of promoting more sustainable way of energy supply in rural communities in Guatemala, based on biomass energy sources available in the communities such as livestock manure, agricultural by-products, and household waste. Using biomass energy technology, the livestock manure, organic part of household waste, and agricultural by-products may be digested by microorganisms to produce biogas, which may relieve the dependence on fuelwood by rural families. The biogas may be produced in a centralized village-scale biogas plant, or in family-scale simple biogas units. To explore this possibility, as the first phase of project this report provides a preliminary study of biomass and environment in Guatemala: it provides a brief survey of biomass energy technology, an overview of situation in Guatemala, a rough scheme of the Green Village based on biomass, and case study of rural communities where the biomass energy development may take place. Examination of the technologies and the situation of Guatemala indicated that biogas production from livestock manure, organic waste, and agricultural by-products is a good option for rural communities in Guatemala. However, the case study revealed that the organic household waste such as food waste may not be a good source for village-scale biogas production, due to the low production of organic waste and the ineffective waste collection system in poor rural communities. Focusing on using livestock manure and agricultural by-products, the downtown area of Sansare municipality is identified as having relatively concentrated level of livestock farming and agricultural by-product generation - a favorable condition to operate a village-scale biogas plant. Further study is needed to determine the feasibility of project and formulate a detailed implementation plant.