Biogas Potential from Slums as a Sustainable and Resilient Route for Renewable Energy Diffusion in Urban Areas and Organic Waste Management in Vulnerable Communities in São Paulo

Abstract

Slums are populated poor areas inside urban centers, mostly deprived of good-quality public services and exposed to inappropriate waste disposal and energy poverty. Using the organic fraction waste from these communities to generate high value-added products, including electricity, heat, and fertilizer, provides a circular bioeconomy with mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions, reducing environmental pollution and diseases. The present study aimed to demonstrate the feasibility of producing bioelectricity from the biogas obtained through the anaerobic digestion of the 400,000 tons of food waste generated in São Paulo’s slums, the largest city in Latin America. The biogas potential was calculated using results obtained from previous studies, expanded to the slums, mapped, and discussed the environmental impact of waste mismanagement and the renewable energy source (RES) integration into the local energy system. The results show a bioelectricity potential of up to 147,734 MWh/y, representing 1.3% of the residential electricity demand with an associated potential reduction of 2111.7 CO2eq Gg/y.

European Green Deal: Justification of the Relationships between the Functional Indicators of Bioenergy Production Systems Using Organic Residential Waste Based on the Analysis of the State of Theory and Practice

“…Based on the analysis of the state of the art in theory and practice, it has been established that the implementation of EGDPs, which involve the production of bioenergy from organic waste generated in residential areas, is a rather urgent task in the world today [3][4][5][6]25,38]. This is due to the growth of the population in cities and the corresponding increase in the amount of generated waste, which negatively affects the environment due to the release of methane, a greenhouse gas with a high potential for global warming [6,25,[38][39][40][41].…”

“…The relevance of bioenergy production from organic waste generated in residential areas is growing as the population grows and the amount of waste generated increases. In addition, in many countries of the world, in particular in Ukraine, governments are taking measures to stimulate the production of renewable energy, including bioenergy [4][5][6]. The utilization of organic waste through the production of bioenergy is one of the effective scenarios for solving this problem, both for residents of residential areas and for communities and regions.…”