Biomass anaerobic digestion and gasification in non-OECD countries—an overview

Abstract Biomass anaerobic digestion (AD) and gasification are highly relevant and noncompeting options to enhance access to clean and renewable energy in non-Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, while positively contributing to the fulfilment of numerous sustainable development goals. In spite of this high relevance, the gap between the large potential of these bioenergy production systems and their actual penetration in non-OECD countries is currently substantial, because their success is prevented by several challenges. This chapter reviews these challenges, both for distributed/household systems and more centralized ones, by focusing on three main aspects (i.e., feedstock, technology, and local context) characterizing the analyzed bioenergy value chains and proposes ways to overcome them. Particular emphasis is given to the need for adopting integrated implementation strategies that combine bottom-up and top-down approaches, on the way to achieve an equilibrium among feedstock, energy and by-products supply and demand, plant size, and end-users acceptance.