Biogas is considered to be a clean and renewable fuel and is formed by the anaerobic decomposition of organic material. Biogas can be produced from raw materials such as agricultural waste, manure, municipal waste, plant material, sewage, green waste or food waste.
The production of Biogas sits at the interface between waste, energy and agricultural policy and can wield numerous advantages such as:
- it helps transform an externality of livestock production into heat and energy
- it reduces methane emissions from storage as well as emissions of nitrous oxides following the application of manure to fields
- it improves the fertiliser value of nitrogen in treated manure, and
- it can substantially contribute to the sustainable rural development and rural vitality
While these benefits are generally linked to biogas production (be it centralized or decentralized), the community biogas approach that ISABEL puts forth has the potential to bring to the beneficial community the above mentioned effects (e.g. increase biogas production through new development projects, increase engagement of stakeholders and their acceptance). It has to be noted that within the ISABEL context we refer to second generation biogas technologies that address many of the first generation technologies’ limitations.