Scaling and commercializing mobile biogas systems in Kenya: A qualitative pilot study

This study investigates the benefits and challenges facing an innovative biogas system being commercialized in Kenya by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and Biogas International. From 2011 to 2014, IFAD and Biogas International have distributed 500 flexi-biogas system (FBS) units to rural Kenyan households. Based on a comprehensive review of project documents and the peer-reviewed literature, supplemented with in-country research interviews, this study details the history, benefits, and challenges facing the dissemination of these FBS units. We highlight how FBS devices have the potential to address climate-energy-agriculture vulnerabilities and also generate income and improve social resilience. We conclude that although the benefits of FBS adoption cut across dimensions, scales, and sectors, the policies needed to support them must be concomitantly synergistic and multidimensional.