Assessment of sociocultural acceptability of biogas from faecal waste as an alternative energy source in selected areas of Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria

The use of wastes for biogas production has been restricted to few feedstock like cattle manure and food waste. Increasing the feedstock base for biogas production is capable of increasing the sustainability of feedstock availability. This study seeks to assess sociocultural and acceptability issues associated with the use of faecal waste (human excreta, cattle manure, etc.) as a source of energy in selected stakeholder areas in Benin City, Nigeria. Qualitative research methods were used for data collection as data were generated through survey questionnaire. Field responses were mined and analysed using Factor analysis and cluster plots generated from Factor plots were analysis using Statistical Program for Social Sciences to rank the variables in order of hierarchical means. Analyses from this study have shown that faecal waste is a dependable feedstock for biogas production while adding value to food production through digestate utilization. Furthermore, high factor loading of 0.759 for acceptance to the fact that biogas from faecal waste has the potential to improve environmental sanitation in Benin City. However, there exist considerable knowledge gap as shown in the analyses which suggest a need for continuous awareness creation, policy formulation and orientation on the importance of biogas production from a range of feedstock in tackling energy security and sustainability in line with SDGs 2, 6 and 7.