Developing Information System for Renewable Energy Production in Ilorin Kwara State, Nigeria

Abstract

This paper explores Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to analyse the potentials for Biogas production Ilorin, with a view to developing a spatial decision support system for biogas plant developers/engineers and potential users. Global Positioning Coordinate of the raw materials locations was taken. The Coordinates and Attributes data on organic wastes location and generation were harvested and imported to GIS environment to create a database. ILWIS 3.3 and ArcGIS 10.1 were used for spatial data processing, GIS operations, and spatial analysis. The results revealed that Biogas raw materials locations are many in the eastern part of Ilorin with eleven (11) locations and three (3) in Ilorin west to make a total of fourteen (14) locations in the Metropolis. The result also showed that all the raw materials locations are well connected by road network such that the raw materials locations are easily accessible such that the materials can be easily sourced and collected. A database query on one of the identifiers shows that BRM 009, a located in Ilorin East with 240 poultry birds and 5 turkey, generates a total of 44.1kg will produce 3.1 m³ volume of biogas. The capacity of Geographical information system makes the solution to spatial problems such as identification of renewable energy raw material sources for its production easy to evaluate and analyzed. The paper has clearly presented an analysis of the potentials for biogas production in Ilorin.

Keywords: Biogas, Potential, Location, Raw material, Production, Information