Rwanda to invest $28m to use landfill gas for cooking and lighting

Rwanda is looking to invest $28 million in landfill gas production for cooking and lighting. According to the Ministry of Environment apart from fossil fuel and agriculture, landfill gas is the third largest human generated source of methane globally. It is important not only to control its emission but, where conditions allow, use it to generate energy, thus offsetting the contribution of two major sources of greenhouse gases towards climate change. Landfill gas is produced by the anaerobic decomposition of organic matter in municipal solid waste and industrial waste. Rwanda’s updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NCDs) seeks to promote extraction of gas from landfills and its utilisation for power generation. This is expected to be done for semi or fully controlled landfills for urban areas. Landfill gas utilisation is expected to reduce methane (CH4) emissions from landfill sites and increase carbon dioxide emissions from displacement of fossil-based electricity use. Landfill gas utilization will contribute to creation of revenue generation opportunities for stakeholders in the waste management process chain, improved quality of water, soil and local atmosphere, increased access to electricity and reduced dependency on traditional biomass energy. Currently, a feasibility study was conducted, aimed at analysing appropriate approaches for sustainable municipal solid waste management, including detailed design of Nduba landfill. The designs were prepared so as to provide an appropriate way for landfill gas collection. Even if there is no specific feasibility study on landfill gas utilization, there is an ongoing project on waste to resources being implemented by the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) that would conduct studies related to waste to energy and would therefore trigger utilization of methane (CH4) of landfills for energy, which is expected to be used for cooking or lighting. Talking to The New Times, a Climate Consultant Alex Mulisa said that, “Methane gas from landfills is a potent greenhouse gas because it is estimated to be 28 times more powerful than carbon dioxide (the standard measure) at warming the Earth.” Mulisa added that it is important from a climate mitigation viewpoint that methane gas in landfills is effectively captured to avoid its escape to the atmosphere as a mitigation reduction strategy. “To reduce its escape to the atmosphere as a mitigation strategy, the capture and utilisation of methane gas for energy (cooking, heating and electricity) will add value to the mitigation potential through reduction in the use of biomass sources of energy. Biomass sources of energy lead to deforestation.” Adeline Icyimpaye, an Engineer and an expert in environment conservation said that, we can get energy that can be used in different other activities and that explains more on why it is important to recycle waste.” She added that the methane gas from landfills may be dangerous to humans but reusing it opens doors for a circular economy in this field. The implementation will involve MININFRA as a lead implementing institution and other stakeholder institutions such as MINALOC, RURA, REMA, City of Kigali, WASAC and Local Government Institutions.

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Rwanda to invest $28m to use landfill gas for cooking and lighting