Kingdom Bioenergy Ltd

Kingdom Bioenergy Ltd draws on many years of experience with biogas programmes in various countries to offer consulting services.
Two books, “Running a biogas programme: A handbook” (1988) and “Small-scale rural biogas programmes: A handbook” (2015) cover the history of biogas technology as used for supplying domestic cooking fuel generated from animal dung, as well as a smell-free compost. The first book was based on the biogas project in Nepal run by DCS and compared it with biogas programmes in India and China. The second book provides a more up-to-date view of these programmes, looking at how the programmes in Nepal, India and China have developed and also how similar programmes in other countries have grown.

Both books provide an understanding of the science and technology of low-cost biogas, rural biogas systems. The first book considers the management approaches used in the programmes in the 1980s, while the second book identifies the approaches that have succeeded over time.

Kingdom Bioenergy Ltd is involved with biogas projects in several countries, including the UK. In the UK, it is involved with Advanced Anaerobics Ltd, offering technical advice. Most farm-scale biogas systems built in the UK are bespoke, individually designed for the site. Advanced Anaerobics Ltd have developed a small number of standard systems based on a German design, which are much cheaper to install.

Kingdom Bioenergy Ltd is involved internationally through Foundation SKG Sangha, a UK registered charitable company, set up in co-operation with SKG Sangha, an Indian NGO.

Another source of information has been international visits on behalf of Ashden, a UK charity that is part of the Sainsbury Foundation. They offer awards to the best renewable energy projects in the world.

Kingdom Bioenergy Ltd was established in September 2007 to encourage the development of biomass energy, especially in the area of biogas technology. We formed a consortium with other people in May 2009, but this has been replaced by a new in initiative to commercialise farm-scale biogas systems in the UK called Advanced Anaerobics Ltd.

The company has gained extensive experience of biogas technology as used in a range of countries, including UK, Nepal, India, China, Rwanda and Ghana. It has strong links with experts in several of these places, especially Nepal, South India and Tanzania.

One aim of the company is to use the above experience to develop a design of biogas plant that reflects the simplicity and cheapness of those used in less developed countries, but which can be used in the UK, Europe and USA. Such as design needs to be built with much less labour than is used in places such as Nepal and India. It also needs to have built-in insulation as ambient temperatures are lower than in the tropics.

The Company offers services in the form of consulting, design, and research and development in the area of biogas technology as well in the broader area of biomass energy technologies.

Using 3D modelling software, the company has made designs of rugged boxes for an electronics company.

A new initiative is Foundation SKG Sangha, an international charitable company, registered in the UK, to use carbon offset and other finance to support biogas and other renewable energy technology projects in many parts of the world.

Research and Development

Effective research consists of identifying patterns that define relationships between different items of interest. A pattern can be described with words or by using mathematical equations. It is a simplification of reality, but allows reality to be better understood.

Simple models can be used to aid the design of technologies. There are a range of models that describe anaerobic digestion.

David Fulford learnt R&D at Bristol University and gained experience over many years, modelling various systems, such the Humphrey pump and sodium heat pipes (the subject of his PhD) as well as biogas plants.

Telling stories

A description of a model needs to be clear, so report writing is also an important skill. The reports that David wrote as an Ashden assessor were used for publicity, so they had to tell an interesting story. David’s skill was valuable in the writing of the two books.

Photography and Video

Stories need to be illustrated, so the Ashden work required good photographs. A project done for DfID on micro-hydro systems included sharing a video with people in Uganda. These opportunities have allowed David to gain some skills in photography, video making and image processing. He has a new interest in making 3D panoramas, but there is much to learn.

3D design modelling

Having been a lecturer in Engineering at the University of Reading, he had opportunity to use various types of design software. The purchase of his own design software (previously Alibre, now Geomagic) allows him to make 3D models of mechanical engineering components, which can be assembled into equipment. A consulting project for a small electronics company gives him the opportunity to design rugged boxes for their circuits.

He was able to make 3D drawings of different biogas plants and equipment for the latest book.

When it started in September 2007, Kingdom Bioenergy Ltd had several contracts of which two were:

With the University of Reading to provide lectures and project supervison on the subject of Biomass Conversion Technologies. The lectures were for half a module of the MSc Course on Renewable Energy: Technology and Sustainability. This is a course that has been running at the University of Reading (under different names) since the early 1980s.
With Ashden Awards, writing material for their new web pages, doing technical assessment of international applications and making visits to international projects to assess their suitability for an Award.
Contract 2 has continued with other consulting work alongside the visits to renewable energy projects each year.

Previous to setting up Kingdom Bioenergy Ltd, Dr David Fulford was involved in a range of consulting activities and projects related to renewable energy technologies in different parts of the world.

More recent contracts have been with LooWatt Ltd, a company set up to develop waterless toilets and also with a company requiring technical drawing work.

In 2012, Kingdom Bioenergy Ltd won a contract to evaluate the Asian Biogas Programme run by SNV (Netherlands Development Organisation). The evaluation report is supposed to be published on the SNV publications website. A pre-publication copy is available here.

In June 2014, he was asked to speak at a World Bank on uses of biogas technology in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Kingdom Bioenergy Ltd is in contact with various experts in the subject of bioenergy and its use in third world development.