Sustainability assessment framework for bio waste energy in Kenya

Abstract

Sustainability and sustainable development are broad concepts that have continued to attract increased attention within the public and private sector thus gaining a broad acceptance as the guiding principle for both public policy and corporate strategies. Sustainability is a technical balance between the present and future interests.However, there are challenges in the implementation of the sustainability concept owing to the multi-dimensionality of the sustainability goal coupled with the complexity of socio-economic and biophysical systems. Sustainable energy exemplifies such a panorama. In this paper, while focusing on sustainable energy, a framework is designed for comparing the environmental, technical and socio-economic performance of different biogas systems. Furthermore, an approach for operationalizing the designed framework is proposed. Innovative aspects of the proposed framework are the development of a multi dimensional assessment system with a typology of multi criteria indicators relevant for biogas energy. In addition two main sustainability issues that could potentially undermine the sustainability of Bio waste-based Biogas Energy (BBE) and hence the assessment framework are defined highlighting the associated opportunities and risks. First land use, opportunities and risks are to be taken into account. However since BBE relies on residues such as agro-based residues, it therefore follows that BBE systems do not have stringent land quality requirements. This implies that technically all the land under agricultural production can be deemed to be available for BBE production. Consequently it can be accentuated that BBE production does not compete with agricultural land and avoids conversion of land with high carbon stocks. In addition since bio waste energy relies on bio waste such as agro residues, it suffices to say that there are no inherent land use risks specific to BBE production. The second sustainability issue of major concern is resource use, opportunities and risks. While BBE offers possibilities for improving efficient utilization of raw materials, there are concerns on how to tackle potential risks such as soil organic carbon stocks. Nevertheless, the possibilities for closed loop biomass resource cascade configurations are deemed to sufficiently address the forgoing concerns.