GC: n
CT: Kivu Lake between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, contains an enormous quantity of dissolved methane. Exploiting this methane is a fabulous opportunity for the economic development of this region. This gas also constitutes a risk of cataclysmic explosion, as occurred in Cameroon at Nyos Lake. A scientific French and Swiss group studied the physicochemical characteristics of the lake and evaluated the risk of a gas explosion. The Company Data Environnement has set up a pilot station to extract the methane for energetic purposes and proposed the promotion of this gas for diverse applications.
Annual wood consumption of wood by Pfunda was of about 4300 steres in 2003. This quantity would take the equivalent of 650 000 Nm3 of methane, thus leaving an excess of 950 000 Nm3 of gas, the equivalent of 760 000 litres of fuel oil.
Figures for wood consumption 2004 – 2009 are even higher, because provisions envisage 5800 steres of wood per year (which would correspond to a maximum consumption of 27 steres per day). Thus the quantity of methane which could be sold to Bralirwa would be 730 000 Nm3 per year, the equivalent of 585 000 litres of fuel oil.
S: http://stoves.bioenergylists.org/kivumethane (last access: 31 January 2015)
N: 1. stere (n): unit of the metric system for solid measure, 1798, from French stère “unit of volume equal to one cubic meter,” from Greek stereos “solid, stiff, firm,” from PIE root *ster- “stiff, rigid” (see stereo-). Little used, cubic meter generally serving instead.
2. A measure of stacked wood. By definition a stere is a stack of wood 1 m long by 1 m wide by 1 m high having a total volume of 1 m3. In practice, the weight of a stere ranges between about 250 to 600 kg.
S: 1. OED – http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=stere&searchmode=none (last access: 31 January 2015). 2. TBAH – http://goo.gl/WnD5dr (last access: 31 January 2015).
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CR: biomass
