Imagine if all the fuel used for cooking, refueling the car and heating the house as well as electricity for appliances was free! You’d probably save a fair bit.
Well, imagine no more because this is exactly how biogas works.
Biogas is made through the decomposition of organic matter in the absence of oxygen.
It can be produced with raw materials such as manure, municipal waste, plant material, green or food waste and even sewage.
While it may sound a little unrefined to use gas made from waste to cook meals, this technique has been used effectively by developing countries for decades.
A biogas is produced in a “digester”. These are often simple homemade tanks or containers which allow bacteria to eat the raw materials and convert them into methane gas.
This process is called anaerobic digestion and the biogas created can then be used as a fuel to generate electricity or heat.
Sounds simple right?
That’s because it is!
In India and nations across Africa as well as parts of Asia, small scale and homemade digesters are commonplace. Check out 14 year old Sahas Chitlange from India’s how to instructions here.
So what exactly are the benefits?
- ● Biogas is simple, low-maintenance and comes at a very low cost
- ● The quality of the flame for cooking food is a lot better than typical LPG (Propane or Butane) gas so it does not char or blacken the cooking instrument
- ● Biogas is better for the environment (it releases less greenhouse gas emissions)
- ● In developing countries, a change to biogas from higher polluting wood and charcoal in small huts, has also shown a direct link to better health
- ● When properly designed and used biogas can improve sanitation, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and provide a high-quality organic fertilizer
- ● An EU study of over 70 fossil and renewable fuels found that biogas is the cleanest and most climate neutral transport fuel of all!
Why aren’t we using it more?
Where sewage management can be one of the biggest issues facing any community, the problem also appears to be the solution.
Over recent years, there has been a large shift towards “poo power”, with countries seeking to harness the benefits from sewage on a larger scale.
For example, the concept of waste-to-power has been implemented in many of India’s public toilets and the production of biogas in sewage treatment plants has become more common.
Already, Europe has been leading the way extracting natural gas from organic waste for over a decade. The 2014 European Biogas Association report recorded 14,563 biogas plants in Europe. 9,035 of the plants were in Germany.
Recently, the US has also embraced the waste to energy concept. There are currently over 2,000 biogas plants in the US. In Northern Colorado, the Heartland Biogas Facility is in its final stages of construction and there has been increasing interest in fueling garbage collection fleets using alternative fuel including biogas.
The world is making headway. If citizens around the world push to adopt poo power in their communities the future will be much healthier and greener. An important step to developing the world and ending extreme poverty.