Decentralised energy generation from organic solid waste in developing countries : a case study of Lusaka city in Zambia

Rapid urbanisation and industrialisation has given rise to increased domestic and industrialsolid waste generation. Furthermore, it has led to the increase in energy demand anddeveloping countries are not an exception to this situation. Primarily, these countries havea solid waste management problem, which is of public health and environmental concern.In trying to address this problem, a need has arisen to view the solid waste more as asource of energy than a problem. The objective of this research was to carry out afeasibility study of decentralised energy generation from organic solid waste (OSW) indeveloping countries, with a case study of Lusaka the Capital of Zambia.Literature on energy generation from the organic fraction of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW)and OSW from food processing industries was reviewed both in developing as well asdeveloped countries. It covered waste generation, composition, collection, characterisationand energy generation from OSW. Solid waste and energy management policies werelooked at. The emphasis was biogas production from MSW using Anaerobic (AD) in adecentralised set-up. Biogas is basically 65% methane and 35% carbon dioxide. It can beused for cooking and lighting.To achieve the objectives of this research, solid waste and energy management data wascollected. It was found that the unit generation rates for solid waste in Lusaka are 0.6, 0.5and 0.4 kg per capita and day for low, medium and high income residential areasrespectively. Solid waste is basically collected as a mixed stream. However, someseparation at source for ferrous metal and paper is carried out. From previous wastecharacterisation studies, it was found that the mixed solid waste was found to have about40% OSW. As for energy, it was found that about 46% of the population in Lusaka haveaccess to electricity for cooking as well as lighting. The rest of the population, residing inperi urban areas relies on charcoal and wood fuel for cooking and kerosene for lighting. Onenergy generation from organic mater, there is some existing competence in Zambiathough the feedstock for AD was cow dung.A case study of Kanyama Compound was discussed. From this research, it was establishedthat there is some potential for biogas production using OSW in a decentralised set-up.However, in addition to the existing SWM programme at the time of this research, therewas need for source separation for OSW if biogas production was to be carried out