Biogas for domestic cooking

For households without access to grid-based electricity or gas for cooking, traditional cook stoves are typically fuelled by wood or charcoal, generating considerable indoor air pollution. Cook stoves fuelled with biogas provide complete combustion, significantly alleviating health and environmental problems. This technology brief from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) provides technical background information, analyses market potential and barriers, and offers insights for policy makers on biogas for domestic cooking. In many developing countries, biogas cooking can also improve the livelihoods of rural households, as by-products of biogas production such as slurry and fertiliser boost agricultural productivity. Modern biogas use, meanwhile, reduces the amount of time spent by women and children collecting wood.