Organic waste in Nairobi City County accounts for 58-63% of the municipal solid waste generated. Food waste is at the center of urban waste management in the city as it accounts for 64% of the recoverable material. The city is estimated to have a food waste generation per capita of 6.1 kilogram per year, which accumulates to 29.4 thousand tons yearly. It transpires that upstream activities of the food supply chain, mainly production, postharvest loss, processing and distribution are the major food waste hotspots, accounting for 95% of the food waste in developing countries. Additionally, downstream activities of the food supply chain show that hotels, restaurants and super markets are the most important food waste hotspots. Such food waste hotspots should become the primary targets for resource recovery in a circular economy. Currently, the exploitation of food waste for animal feed and composting is growing in Nairobi City County, which signifies that food waste is becoming a valuable urban resource that can be traded, thus creating employment. However, the application of food waste for energy recovery through anaerobic digestion is limited in the city due to lack of source separation of municipal solid waste. On average, food waste has a biomethane potential of 508.45 ml CH4 /g VS. This implies that 29.4 thousand tons of food waste generated in Nairobi City County has the potential to yield 10.5 million m3 of methane, and will demand a digestion volume of 4,299 m3. Using global case studies of electricity generation from biogas, it is estimated that food waste in the city potentially yields 1.38 MW of electricity. In addition, about 26.1 thousand tons of bioslurry can be recovered from the digestion of food waste, which can be used for urban agriculture. Regardless of the liquefied petroleum gas enjoying a tax exemption, biogas at 32.78 USD per gigajoule of delivered energy demonstrates to be more economical, and this can be enhanced by upgrading it. The removal of liquefied petroleum gas from tax-exempt goods through the Finance Act 2020, and an addition of 16% value added tax on the fuel by Kenya Revenue Authority that became effective on 1st July, 2021 favors biofuels such as methane. However, long term realization of methane generation potential in NCC demands the adoption and implementation of more friendly biofuels policies and regulatory frameworks in the country.
Published in | Journal of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering (Volume 6, Issue 4) |
DOI | 10.11648/j.jeece.20210604.15 |
Page(s) | 131-144 |
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This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
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Nairobi City County, Food Waste, Anaerobic Digestion, Methane, Policy
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APA Style
Hope Baxter Chamdimba, Isaiah Omosa, Simon Mdondo Wandera. (2021). A Comprehensive Review of Biomethanation of Urban Food Waste in Nairobi City County, Kenya. Journal of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering, 6(4), 131-144. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jeece.20210604.15
ACS Style
Hope Baxter Chamdimba; Isaiah Omosa; Simon Mdondo Wandera. A Comprehensive Review of Biomethanation of Urban Food Waste in Nairobi City County, Kenya. J. Energy Environ. Chem. Eng. 2021, 6(4), 131-144. doi: 10.11648/j.jeece.20210604.15
AMA Style
Hope Baxter Chamdimba, Isaiah Omosa, Simon Mdondo Wandera. A Comprehensive Review of Biomethanation of Urban Food Waste in Nairobi City County, Kenya. J Energy Environ Chem Eng. 2021;6(4):131-144. doi: 10.11648/j.jeece.20210604.15
@article{10.11648/j.jeece.20210604.15, author = {Hope Baxter Chamdimba and Isaiah Omosa and Simon Mdondo Wandera}, title = {A Comprehensive Review of Biomethanation of Urban Food Waste in Nairobi City County, Kenya}, journal = {Journal of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering}, volume = {6}, number = {4}, pages = {131-144}, doi = {10.11648/j.jeece.20210604.15}, url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jeece.20210604.15}, eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.jeece.20210604.15}, abstract = {Organic waste in Nairobi City County accounts for 58-63% of the municipal solid waste generated. Food waste is at the center of urban waste management in the city as it accounts for 64% of the recoverable material. The city is estimated to have a food waste generation per capita of 6.1 kilogram per year, which accumulates to 29.4 thousand tons yearly. It transpires that upstream activities of the food supply chain, mainly production, postharvest loss, processing and distribution are the major food waste hotspots, accounting for 95% of the food waste in developing countries. Additionally, downstream activities of the food supply chain show that hotels, restaurants and super markets are the most important food waste hotspots. Such food waste hotspots should become the primary targets for resource recovery in a circular economy. Currently, the exploitation of food waste for animal feed and composting is growing in Nairobi City County, which signifies that food waste is becoming a valuable urban resource that can be traded, thus creating employment. However, the application of food waste for energy recovery through anaerobic digestion is limited in the city due to lack of source separation of municipal solid waste. On average, food waste has a biomethane potential of 508.45 ml CH4 /g VS. This implies that 29.4 thousand tons of food waste generated in Nairobi City County has the potential to yield 10.5 million m3 of methane, and will demand a digestion volume of 4,299 m3. Using global case studies of electricity generation from biogas, it is estimated that food waste in the city potentially yields 1.38 MW of electricity. In addition, about 26.1 thousand tons of bioslurry can be recovered from the digestion of food waste, which can be used for urban agriculture. Regardless of the liquefied petroleum gas enjoying a tax exemption, biogas at 32.78 USD per gigajoule of delivered energy demonstrates to be more economical, and this can be enhanced by upgrading it. The removal of liquefied petroleum gas from tax-exempt goods through the Finance Act 2020, and an addition of 16% value added tax on the fuel by Kenya Revenue Authority that became effective on 1st July, 2021 favors biofuels such as methane. However, long term realization of methane generation potential in NCC demands the adoption and implementation of more friendly biofuels policies and regulatory frameworks in the country.}, year = {2021} }
TY - JOUR T1 - A Comprehensive Review of Biomethanation of Urban Food Waste in Nairobi City County, Kenya AU - Hope Baxter Chamdimba AU - Isaiah Omosa AU - Simon Mdondo Wandera Y1 - 2021/12/29 PY - 2021 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jeece.20210604.15 DO - 10.11648/j.jeece.20210604.15 T2 - Journal of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering JF - Journal of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering JO - Journal of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering SP - 131 EP - 144 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2637-434X UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jeece.20210604.15 AB - Organic waste in Nairobi City County accounts for 58-63% of the municipal solid waste generated. Food waste is at the center of urban waste management in the city as it accounts for 64% of the recoverable material. The city is estimated to have a food waste generation per capita of 6.1 kilogram per year, which accumulates to 29.4 thousand tons yearly. It transpires that upstream activities of the food supply chain, mainly production, postharvest loss, processing and distribution are the major food waste hotspots, accounting for 95% of the food waste in developing countries. Additionally, downstream activities of the food supply chain show that hotels, restaurants and super markets are the most important food waste hotspots. Such food waste hotspots should become the primary targets for resource recovery in a circular economy. Currently, the exploitation of food waste for animal feed and composting is growing in Nairobi City County, which signifies that food waste is becoming a valuable urban resource that can be traded, thus creating employment. However, the application of food waste for energy recovery through anaerobic digestion is limited in the city due to lack of source separation of municipal solid waste. On average, food waste has a biomethane potential of 508.45 ml CH4 /g VS. This implies that 29.4 thousand tons of food waste generated in Nairobi City County has the potential to yield 10.5 million m3 of methane, and will demand a digestion volume of 4,299 m3. Using global case studies of electricity generation from biogas, it is estimated that food waste in the city potentially yields 1.38 MW of electricity. In addition, about 26.1 thousand tons of bioslurry can be recovered from the digestion of food waste, which can be used for urban agriculture. Regardless of the liquefied petroleum gas enjoying a tax exemption, biogas at 32.78 USD per gigajoule of delivered energy demonstrates to be more economical, and this can be enhanced by upgrading it. The removal of liquefied petroleum gas from tax-exempt goods through the Finance Act 2020, and an addition of 16% value added tax on the fuel by Kenya Revenue Authority that became effective on 1st July, 2021 favors biofuels such as methane. However, long term realization of methane generation potential in NCC demands the adoption and implementation of more friendly biofuels policies and regulatory frameworks in the country. VL - 6 IS - 4 ER -