From waste to fuel
Leave it to third-world countries to invent new ways of recycling. In Rwanda, there is a prison near the Democratic Republic of the Congo that gets approximately one-half of their fuel for the prison by converting human feces into biofuel. Ironically, most of the prisoners at this prison are human rights violators (as are most of the prisoners in Rwanda as a whole). The overcrowded prison means that energy consumption is higher, and the amount of waste produced is greater as well.
Converting waste to biogas has improved three areas of the Rwandan prison situation. Firstly, it saves the Rwandan government nearly $1 million a year that it would have to spend on wood for fuel. Secondly, it has reduced the amount of waste being dumped into nearby Lake Kivu and other rivers. Thirdly, once the waste is processed, it serves as an odor-free fertilizer for the grounds.
The process of converting feces into usable methane gas starts out with a foul odor, but by the end, is odor-free. The program has been so successful that there are now biogas facilities in nearly half of the thirty prisons in Rwanda, and they produce nearly half the necessary electricity to power the prisons.
The facilities resemble giant beehives, and is used widely throughout the world. The process is self-sustaining:
The process requires putting a given amount of human or other animal waste into a “digester,” which ferments it using bacteria to release methane gas that can be captured and then burned as fuel. Attached is a “compensating chamber” that replenishes the supply of bacteria to keep the operation self-sustaining.
In four weeks, 100 cubic meters of waste can be converted into 50 cubic meters of fuel, which is used to make electricity and is even used as cooking fuel. The prisoners apparently aren’t deterred by using their own waste to cook with: they see that it works, and so they want to use it.
Rwanda isn’t the only country using waste as fuel: some Nepalese have begun to use it in their homes, and the Swedes use it to power trains. Rwanda is, however, probably the most unique country to use biogas. There’s something poetic about human rights violators using their own waste as a means to create electricity and cook. Now if only such a system would be put into place in the United States. Alas, most first-world countries have other, too well-established means of producing power, and their citizenry would have a collective heart attack if human waste was used as a means of cooking food for human consumption. Third world countries, on the other hand, have no such inhibitions, and it should come as no surprise, then, that they would come up with a way to solve waste problems in an innovative, environmentally friendly, and cost-effective manner.
If you’re curious, you can find instructions on how to build your own biogas plant here.
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In the 1600s Edo (now Tokyo) was the biggest city in the world, with more than a million people. There was an extensive system in place for collection and reuse of human waste. “Night soil” carriers ran from the city center with their valuable loads out to the farming districts, where the feces turned into fertilizer, which turned into rice (which eventually turned into feces once again). Reusing the stuff certainly sounds like a wiser option than treating it with harsh chemicals and flushing it into the sea . . . or, as is probably the case in the third world, than not treating it at all and letting it seep into the supply of drinking water.
Comment by Durf — July 20, 2005 @ 2:21 am
[...] Back in July, I reported on prisons in Rwanda using human waste as fuel. Now a new bill has been signed in Texas regarding how and where biomass fuel can be used. The bill also requires that more renewable energy resources be explored and developed over the next ten years. [...]
Pingback by polyscience.org » New initiative for biomass fuel — August 8, 2005 @ 11:16 am
Many people have distroyed the environment in search energy, I resolve is to begin using both animal and human waste as a way to contribute to the protection of the environment. I need the knowledge on how the system of harvesting biogas is constructed.
My other contribution in this struggle would be to begin demonstrations to mainly schools in Uganda which actually use alot of wood energy and yet they production lots material that couyld be used to generate this energy. These institutions wood even save on the money used to purchase this wood for cooking.
I therefore request for the knowledge in this regard.
For institutions like hospitals, prisons and schools this is the way to go if we are to reduce the degardation of the environment by using the already existing and yet free source of energy.
Augustine Wandera
Comment by Augustine — December 24, 2005 @ 6:45 am
I am writing a thesis called:
Implementing Small-Scale Biogas by Lake Victoria
and I agree, biogas can do a lot of good, with a little input! In fact it is more a question of re-arranging.
For info about how to build and use biogas digesters, as well as lots of general info on biogas, please see my website: http://web.telia.com/~u52311127/karolina or e-mail me: karolinahagegard@gmail.com .
Thanks for mentioning our humble, Swedish biogas train! :)
/Karolina from Sweden
Comment by Karolina HagegÃ¥rd — November 18, 2007 @ 10:42 am
With the escalating cost of energy this is the way to go. This resource is availablbe freely in every household. AS long as there will be food and man will have the same.
When we were small boys in rural kenya stories were told of how we could get electricity directly from the toilet. Anybody out there with knowledge of how this is done.
NASA have identified some some bacteria that generetes an electric current using human feaces.
I am doing an MSc in renwable energy technology at Kenyatta University KENYA
Comment by NELSON NGARI — May 12, 2008 @ 9:26 am
Biogas production sounds a good idea, but how feasible is it for poor people in urban and peri-urban settings to produce and utilise this technology?
Though I am not an expert in biogass production, I know human feaces are a good source of biogass. How best can the technology be harnesed for most urban and peri urban slums of most towns and municipalities of sub saharan Africa, which are characterised by high levels of poverty, landlessness and poor sanitation among others?
Are there any prospects of generating biogass from municipal solid waste and waste water as these are major problems in most sub saharan municipalities? For instance, I know of one Municipality, where a sample of 24 groups of local people discharged MWW at an average rate of 1,262l (SD 129.4) per day into a nearby wetland, from local alcohol distillation. Is there any prospects of generating biogass out such MWW, given its high Chemical Oxidation Demand (24,000 mg/l)?
I shall be grateful to receive feedback from an interested party.
Comment by Daniel Omodo McMondo — June 25, 2008 @ 4:27 am