Biogas for households, China

Biogas plant, China

The project helps farmers in extreme poverty to build private biogas plants. The plant is basically an underground slurry tank into which farmers can flush their pigs' faeces. In the tank, the faeces gives off methane gas, which is piped to a gas burner in the kitchen. Instead of seeping into the atmosphere as a greenhouse gas, the methane is now burned, replacing the use of coal and wood for cooking.

‍

Once the faeces has been degassed and digested, it can be used as fertiliser on farmers' fields. But it also has a wide range of social benefits and makes a huge difference to farmers' lives.

‍

They don't have to spend large sums of money buying coal, and don't have to stand in the smoke from their fireplace all day. They also avoid the bad smells of their animals' excrement rotting in the barn.

‍

On top of that, they get fertiliser that can replace the chemical fertiliser they depend on, and sometimes sell, which benefits their economy, local biodiversity, and gives better yields from the fields, etc. (it is a phenomenon to "sweat" the topsoil by overusing chemical fertiliser). The environment also benefits from the reduced felling of trees as a result of a new clean energy source, and the fact that pig dung is no longer dumped in nearby lakes and rivers (as was sometimes done before), causing contaminated water sources and disease.

‍

Targeting exclusively the poorest of the poor, the project combats inequality both by putting more money into the hands of families and by creating a lot of jobs in the local community (some 7,500 new jobs have been created as a result of the project). As women are mainly responsible for collecting firewood and cooking, they are also the main beneficiaries of the time saved and the drastically improved indoor environment.