Providing energy for rural Indian communities: anaerobic digestion at Loughborough University

Rural Hybrid Energy Enterprise Systems (RHEES) is a research partnership between 6 UK and 7 Indian Universities. The aim of this project is to develop best practise at a smaller community scale which makes use of hybrid and combinations of biofuels. The idea is to improve rural energy availability, equity of cost and to generate an economic stimulus from the desire to provide greater energy security and reduced environmental impact. The Loughborough University part of the project is on how to apply village scale anaerobic digestion. This will be achieved by: Development of small-medium scale systems Combining solar/ thermal heat integration for pre-treatment of feedstock and pasteurisation of digestate Designing prefabricated systems Development of remote monitoring of digesters Working with partners and stakeholders throughout.