Sustainability Assessment of Rural Biogas Production and Use Through a Multi-Criteria Approach: A Case Study in Colombia

Franco Hernan Gomez (), Nelson Javier Vasquez, Kelly Cristina Torres, Carlos Mauricio Meza and Mentore Vaccari
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Franco Hernan Gomez: Department of Civil, Environmental, Architectural Engineering and Mathematics, University of Brescia, Via Branze 43, 25123 Brescia, Italy
Nelson Javier Vasquez: Environmental Sciences PhD Program, Universidad del Cauca, Calle 5 No. 4-70, 190001 Popayán, Colombia
Kelly Cristina Torres: Research Group on Conservation and Use of Biodiversity (BioCon), Instituto Universitario de La Paz-Unipaz, Km 14 vía Bucaramanga, 687031 Barrancabermeja, Colombia
Carlos Mauricio Meza: Research Group on Environmental Engineering (GIAS), Instituto Universitario de La Paz-Unipaz, Km 14 vía Bucaramanga, 687031 Barrancabermeja, Colombia
Mentore Vaccari: Department of Civil, Environmental, Architectural Engineering and Mathematics, University of Brescia, Via Branze 43, 25123 Brescia, Italy

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 15, 1-18

Abstract: There is still a need to develop scenarios and models aimed at substituting fuelwood and reducing the use of fossil fuels such as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), on which low-income rural households in the Global South often depend. The use of these fuels for cooking and heating in domestic and productive activities poses significant health and environmental risks. This study validated, in three different phases, the sustainability of a model for the production and use of biogas from the treatment of swine-rearing wastewater (WWs) on a community farm: (i) A Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA), incorporating environmental, social/health, technical, and economic criteria, identified the main weighted criterion to C8 (use of small-scale technologies and low-cost access), with a score of 0.44 points, as well as the Tubular biodigester (Tb) as the most suitable option for the study area, scoring 8.1 points. (ii) Monitoring of the Tb over 90 days showed an average biogas production of 2.6 m 3 d −1 , with average correlation 0.21 m 3 Biogas kg Biomass −1 . Using the experimental biogas production rate (k = 0.0512 d −1 ), the process was simulated with the BgMod model, achieving an average deviation of only 10.4% during the final production phase. (iii) The quantification of benefits demonstrated significant reductions in firewood use: in Scenario S1 (kitchen energy needs), biogas replaced 83.1% of firewood, while in Scenario S2 (citronella essential oil production), the substitution rate was 24.1%. In both cases, the avoided emissions amounted to 0.52 tons of CO 2eq per month. Finally, this study proposes a synthesised, community-based rural biogas framework designed for replication in regions with similar socio-environmental, technical, and economic conditions.

Keywords: wastewater; biogas; multi-criteria analysis (MCA); energy communities; digestate; circular economy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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