From animal waste to energy: Exploring the effects of household livelihoods on biogas technology use in Rwanda

Using household biogas technology effectively can advance clean cooking transitioning in energy-poor communities. While the existing literature largely examines potentials, adoption barriers, and impacts of the technology, little is known about how household livelihoods affect its use. This study addresses this gap through a mixed-methods approach. Smart biogas metres were deployed to collect biogas utilisation data from 4 Rwandan households for 7 months. Field observations, semi-structured interviews, and phenomenological questioning were used to collect mixed data for triangulation. Pattern analysis and interpretive phenomenological analysis were used for the data analysis. Findings indicate that households with consolidated land-based livelihoods, spending more time at home, operated and used their biogas systems more consistently than those whose livelihoods are spread across fragmented landholdings. Households with stable year-round family composition operated and used the technology more effectively than those experiencing seasonal changes in family membership. Further, findings show that households continued to use solid fuels even when biogas was available. Locally fabricated biogas stoves lacked the firepower and mechanical strength needed for cooking staple meals requiring continuous stirring and mixing. This resulted into intermittent underutilisation of the produced biogas, hence biogas venting. 4–9 % of the daily biogas production was vented, depending on each household's operational practices and patterns of technology use. Biogas venting leads to energy loss, greenhouse gas emissions, and undermines the technology's intended benefits and expected impacts. This study shows that understanding the household livelihood dynamics in technology-user communities is crucial for its use and for formulating customised clean cooking policies. • Remote logging of data on household biogas utilisation. • Interpretive phenomenology for technology user lived experience. • Mixed data and approaches for in-depth understanding. • Explaining the causes of observed biogas utilisation patterns. • Discussing the effects of household livelihoods on household biogas technology.