Case Study on Economic and Environmental Impact of Biogas Plants on Farmers in Pakistan

Thirdly, the cost of biofuel is high because its production and infrastructural cost is humongous. To create biofuel, large tracts of land need to be cleared for setting up the plant. This is not feasible because of global economic meltdown whose one major disadvantage is the rising food prices. If the land that could be better used for producing the much needed food crops, there is no need to use the same land for generating biofuels (FAO 07). Furthermore, the cost of establishing and running a biofuel plant runs into billions. Where would the money come from? Of course, the people have to pay for them, doubly, first for purchasing biofuel and secondly in the form of taxes. Ironically, the common man cannot afford such expenses given the current economic situation, which if not controlled will create more problems in the future like unemployment, an issue more important than debating biofuels and diesel fuels (Stern 07).

In the current era, fossil fuel is a necessity in our everyday life, for not only it is used as an energy source, but also due to the high rate of dependability on the fuel itself. The recent drop in oil prices caused an enormous impact on the world economy, especially to the countries that are highly dependent on the fuel industry. The United States also are affected by this situation. One suggestion and a major change, in order to reduce the high dependency on the fossil fuel and to overcome the problems related to the usage of fossil fuel, is to start the wide use of biofuel as the fossil fuel replacement. The impact of this change, and also a huge improvement, not only will help to stabilize the economy, but also can help in reducing the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

The renewable energy that the Georges produced through the bio-gas is set up to offset the farm's electricity use and/or sell the power at wholesale rates to the local utility. In the article it stated that the change to bio-gas results in less odor-causing compounds in manure in a liquid storage system and the breaking down of manure in the digester changes the organic nitrogen into ammonium which is when spread on the fields it’ll become more readily available when consumed by the plants allowing for less nutrient runoff. Also reduces weeds appearing in the fields causing less weeds growing with crops. Another great thing about the digestion process it also reduces methane, a greenhouse gas, emissions (basically global warming) which would otherwise remain in the atmosphere for 9 to 15

The project’s hypothesis is: if the type of biomass is vegetable peels then the amount of biogas produced will increase. This project tests the amount of biogas produced when cow manure is combined with different types of biomass (in this case, mashed bananas and vegetable peelings). It is an interesting project because studying how biogas is produced, it is possible to see how this chemical reaction happens. Biogas can be used for cooking, heating, and after going through a transformation process it could be even used as fuel. If studied more, biogas could have more functions.

Initial consensus was hog waste could be used as fertilizer for neighboring crops, but as learned above, this isn’t exactly a solution to a problem but rather another problem in the making. In the long-term, waste lagoons tapped as manure sources to spray on fields is not sustainable as fields are unable to absorb the volume of waste generated by hog production facilities. To cut air and water pollution generated by hog waste, approximately 29 swine operators across the country use waste digesters that are considered biogas recovery mechanisms.12 The infrastructure of this costly system consists of slat covered barn flooring that hogs walk across, and as they defecate, their waste is routed to a large sized manure digester. This digester allows bacteria to decompose the waste for a set period of time and produces methane in the process. The methane gas produced travels through piping to a generator where it can be burned to create electricity a farm site can in turn sell. Through additional refinement, biogas can also be made into transportation fuel, i.e. natural gas. Any remaining waste not decomposed by bacteria would be routed to a waste containment lagoon and covered to limit wafting of noxious odors and avoid overflow due to rains. At this time, this method is considered somewhat cost prohibitive and interested parties are trying to find economical alternatives that may be

In this process about 5-15% of gross energy intake by the animals is wasted in the form of methane (Johnson and Johnson, 1995). Therefore, research efforts are needed to suppress methane emission for eco-friendly and economic livestock production. If this reducing power concentrated in the reduced cofactors is not utilized for reduction of an oxidized compound, further fermentation of carbohydrates will be stopped and no release of energy from feed will be possible. In the rumen of an adult cow/buffalo; more than 200 litres of methane is produced every day. Several laboratories in India have estimated methane emitted by livestock and their figures also vary greatly, depending upon the method used for calculation (Kamra et al., 2012; Patra, 2014). Swamy and Bhattacharya (2006) compared methane emission by Indian livestock. As per the latest calculation on the data of Deptt. of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries, Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India, the country is responsible for production of methane to the tune of 14.55 Tg/year (13.27 Tg from enteric fermentation and 1.28 Tg from livestock waste management), out of which cattle (6.73 Tg/year) and buffalo (6.56 Tg/year) collectively are responsible for 91.3% of total methane emitted by the livestock in India while the rest 8.7% is emitted by goats, sheep, yak, mithun and other herbivorous animals.

Sustainability is an issue the whole world is facing but in particular it is become a big problem in the livestock industry. Greenhouse gases are the cause and in order to preserve the planet for future generation’s changes must be made. Methane is the greenhouse gas which produced by livestock. Methane is approximately 30 times worse for the environment than carbon dioxide as it is a heat trapping gas. If sustainability needs the achieved in the Livestock industry than the issue of methane must be taken care of sooner rather than later.

Around 70% of agricultural land is utilized for some aspects of livestock production (Bonny et al. 2015). It has been evaluated that livestock produce around 18% of every green house gas emissions, including 37% of all methane emissions mainly connected with ruminants (FAO 2009), although, other authors have delivered lower numbers (Pitesky et al. 2009). Livestock production is additionally one of the primary drivers of deforestation, deprivation of wildlife habitats, and an abundant accumulation of nutrients that decrease oxygen in water ways. About 34% of the GHG emission related to livestock production are due to deforestation, 25% are methane emission from abdominal fermentation of ruminants, and 31 % of the emission are related to manure management (FAO 2009). As of now, livestock raised for meat utilize about 30% of terrestrial land and 8% of global freshwater, while creating 18% of global GHG, which is more than the overall transportation region (Tuomisto and de Mattos 2011).

Jevanni CousinsProfessor ReidSCC 101 Biofuel’s Future in the U.S. and the WorldOne of the major problems confronting the United States and the World today, is the growing lack of fossil fuels and the accrual emissions of carbon into the atmosphere. The United States is still dependent on fossil fuels today such as coal despite numerous efforts to decrease that dependency, and are also relying on imported oil from multiple foreign countries particularly in the Middle East. The use of fossil fuel has generated great anxiety in greenhouse gas emissions and governments from all over the world, including the United States which is leading the effort in combating this issue. The problems have grown so huge in this century that President Barack Obama made it a major initiative during his administration to overcome it. He once said “we cannot drill our way to energy but must fast-track investments in renewable sources of energy like solar power, wind power and advanced biofuels” (Obama). In this paper, I will discuss biofuels, the types biofuels, along with its potential and challenges that it may face in our growing society. In recognition of the issues that exist due to fossil fuels, the United States elective bodies has been preaching the encouragement for the uses of biofuels, which has prompt an increase in

Department of Economics, School of Business and Management American University of Sharjah Principles of Macroeconomics

This paper gives an outline of the hotspots of contentions in biofuel production in Latin America. It shows researches on accessible sustainability instruments and activities to guarantee practical biofuel generation in Latin America, and examines the benefits, advantages and obstructions of implementing sustainability initiatives of biofuel production in latin America. The paper additionally propose a point of view toward how to incorporate sustainability in the Latin American biofuel area. It eventually lands at the conclusion and advances a few suggestions.

MIDTERM REVIEW ECONOMICS 100A: Intermediate Microeconomics Instructor: Prof. Ryan Oprea Prepared by: Aadil Nakhoda BUDGET CONSTRAINT

From both an environmental, as well as economic standpoint, it is in the best interest of cattle producers to decrease methane emissions, limit their contribution to climate change, and improve overall animal feed efficiency (Beauchemin et al., 2008). There are several options for reducing methane emissions, which can be collectively grouped into three broad categories. These categories include increasing animal production via genetics and management, modifications to feeds, feeding management, and nutrition (including intake, roughage type/ quality, forage to concentrate ratio, feed processing, total mixed rations/ feeding frequency, and precision feeding/ feed analysis), and supplementation with rumen modifiers (including plant

M-Global has an extreme passion for energy conservation and dedicates itself in finding alternative energy sources that are innovative and constructive. Biofuel is the emphasis of our company and our purpose for this pursuit. According to Green Choices of Cornell University, “biofuels are energy sources made from living things such as plants or from waste that the living things produce”. (http://www.greenchoices.cornell.edu/energy/biofuels/) Biofuels will reduce greenhouse gases that car oil and gasoline produce. Emissions enter the ozone layer trapping heat resulting in warmer temperatures in each season. A first generation biofuel will consist of gasoline such as biodiesel, which will be discussed in this portfolio.

In the world of global warming, all kinds of pollution and fuel shortages going on, renewable and clean/ green energy is increasingly the ideal solution of energy related problems we have to solve one way or another. Biofuel is one of the mainstream and highly supported solutions nowadays, an idea to make renewable fuel by living organisms such as fiber, corn, vegetable oil or sugar cane. Unlike nonrenewable fossil fuels over extracted by people causing various environmental problems like generating a considerable amount greenhouse gas, current technology already lets renewable fuel like biofuels to shrink a certain amount of greenhouse gas production, making it a more ‘clean’ source of energy.