The Bhutanese Leading the way.
The largest-ever installed biogas plant in Bhutan in the National Piggery Development Centre (NPiDC), Gelephu aims to supply bio fuel, enough to replace 30 Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) gas cylinders annually, that would otherwise cost about Nu 15000 per year if imported.
According to the NPiDC, as of now, the plant is able to reduce the electricity utility bill. The plant has 75 cubic meters production capacity. The farm uses the piggery waste produced from 700 farm animals for daily refilling of the plant.
The biogas produced is utilized for light, heat generation at pig sheds and is connected to 10 kitchens of animal attendants, staff quarters and office building. The biogas plants installed in other dzongkhags do not have more than 6 cubic meters production capacity.
As per the NPiDC, the installation was carried out in order to contribute towards the climate change issues and to control the foul piggery smell, especially in the rapidly expanding Gelephu town and Jampelling constituency.
Although, it would be difficult to quantify the reduction of emission of green house gases to environment, the immediate impact noticed is in reduction of farm odour and an improvement in farm hygiene, NPiDC states. In the past, the pig dung was either washed away to outlet drains or left in the open for natural drying out process.
NPiDC plans to install similar biogas plant at the Regulatory Poultry and Pig Breeding Centre, Lingmithang, Mongar. It was installed in collaboration with the Bhutan Biogas Project and SNV Netherlands Development Organization.
