Innovation in sustainable biogas for clean cooking in Ghana and Uganda

Almost three billion people use biomass, coal or dung for cooking: Smoke from fuel combustion causes four million premature deaths annually. The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals commits countries to improving access to clean energy, but progress is slow. Furthermore, achieving access for poorer people often involves provision of low-power electricity connections, not addressing cooking.

Clean cooking initiatives include efficient solid-fuel stoves, innovations for electricity using batteries (very early stage) and use of bottled gas, e.g. LPG – a clean-burning fossil fuel, but with greenhouse-gas emissions. We will explore a novel approach: Biogas derived from agro-industry wastes bottled into similar pressurised containers as used for LPG.

The project will:

• Map options for developing bio-wastes-to-biogas-to-cooking business models
• Understand the challenges affecting implementation in two case study countries, Ghana and Uganda
• Enhance knowledge transfer and capacity development in clean energy infrastructure development, helping reduce poverty, increase employment and improve health.