Estimation of Greenhouse Gas Emission and its Mitigation Study in a Community Biogas Plant : A Case Study of “Rastriya Gai Anusandhan Kendra Biogas Plant, Rampur Chitwan”

Abstract

Anaerobic Digestion (AD) at digester is considered as an environmentally friendly technology to manage biodegradable waste like cattle dung. However, systematic environmental impact associated with different phases of life cycle of AD at digester is necessary to qualify the technology as environmentally friendly. Several such studies have been carried out in different parts of the world, however, such quantification may not be applicable under Nepalese conditions as the inventory and management of digestate and other technical parameters may be different. Very limited environmental impact studies have been conducted under Nepalese scenario and so the aim of our study is to estimate the greenhouse gases emissions (GHGE) associated with the production of biogas at Rastriya Gai Anusandhan Kendra, Rampur, Chitwan (community biogas plant) systematically, identify the hotspots contributing GHGE and recommend the mitigation strategies of GHGE. ISO 9001 based life cycle assessment (LCA) approach was employed as a methodological framework for the study. Primary inventory data were collected through field visits based on pre structured questionnaire and wherever necessary, secondary data were collected from the official data providing center of the country as well from the published scientific literatures.