An advanced bio-digester (biogas plant) is under construction in Accra to support the profitable use of organic waste in the country.
A bio-digester is a plant which uses micro-organisms to convert organic waste into renewable energy called biogas and other materials for cooking, lighting and as fertiliser.
Financed by the Global Challenges Research Fund through the United Kingdom (UK) Research and Innovation, the 1.5metre cubic bio-digester is being set up at the Umar Bun Hatab Islamic School at Madina.
This is part of a £700,000 project, dubbed “Accelerating the Adoption of Circular Sanitation Demonstration Systems for Improved Health Outcomes (ACTUATE), going on in Ghana and Nigeria.
The 18-month project, started in Ghana in 2019, is jointly being implemented by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research’s Institute of Industrial Research (CSIR-IRR); the Lancaster University, UK; HATOF Foundation and other partners.
At a media briefing about the project in Accra yesterday, the ACTUATE Project Coordinator at CSIR-IIR, Dr Richard Bayitse, said the bio-digester was 90 per cent complete.
He said it was being constructed to demonstrate how organic waste could be converted into useful purposes and that it would be replicated in larger forms for the market later.
Giving details of the plant, he said the solar-powered system consisted of tanks fixed on top of the school’s septic tank and connected to tubes unlike other bio-digesters which were underground.
He said it had multiple channels to accept organics materials from other sources, in addition to the faecal matter from the septic tank for digestion by the micro-organism and conversion to bio-gas and other materials.
He said a laboratory would be constructed at the school, where gas from the plant would be used for various demonstrations on biogas in addition to teaching and learning of waste management.
According to Dr Bayitse, all hazard identification processes had been done while safety insurance would be secured to safeguard the safety of the pupils and other stakeholders.
The Director of ACTUATE and International Engagement at the Lancaster University, Prof. Kirk T. Semple, said the project was aimed at helping to boost the circular economies in beneficiary countries.
Aside from the biodigester at Madina, he said, another one would be established on the University of Benin campus in Nigeria and expressed the hope that both plants would serve the intended purpose.
The Chief Executive Officer of HATOF Foundation, Samuel Dotse, said the project had been extended to the end of the year due to the delays occasioned by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
He said the process of establishing the plant had been documented to help whip up the interest of pupils and the public in putting the abundant organic waste in the country to productive use.
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