Curious about how we turn waste into something useful? Then keep reading!
Energy is becoming a problem all over the world, and particularly for farmers in rural Kenya, deforestation and an increased need of fuel have caused the cost of fuel to rise and the availability of fuel to decrease to the point that energy is a daily concern for the most basic needs of cooking for one’s family or lighting one’s home.
Fortunately, most farmers have the answer to this problem on their very own farms. Farmers who own cows, pigs and chickens can collect the waste from these animals, and by loading it daily into underground biogas systems constructed by Takamoto Biogas, have just created an energy resource on their very own properties. The waste breaks down and creates gas that is piped directly to its point of use for cooking, lighting, heating etc. and the processed animal waste is a very nutritious fertilizer that has more than doubled crop yield for some Takamoto Biogas clients.
By installing a biogas system, the farmer produces two very important products: biogas to replace unreliable, unhealthy and expensive fuels, and biofertilizer to replace expensive and harmful synthetic fertilizers and increase their crop yield by farming the same amount of land. With these needs attended to, a farmer can look beyond the daily needs of his farm and plan for a better future for his family and community.
RESOURCE: Organic wastes such as human feces, cow dung, vegetable scraps, greases, green waste…really anything that can rot can be be used to produce biogas. The waste is mixed with water and loaded into an anaerobic digester. The digester maintains an oxygen-free environment suitable for methane-producing archeabacteria (also called methanogenic bacteria) to metabolize proteins, lipids and carbohydrates in the waste into biogas.
BIOGAS: The biogas is approximately 65% methane and 35% carbon dioxide and several other gases at low concentrations. The anaerobic digester collects the biogas as it bubbles to the surface.
DIGESTATE: After the bacteria have consumed the energy from the waste there are still leftover solids. This digestate contains little pathogenic bacteria, if any at all. The digestate can be used as an organic agricultural fertilizer at a much lower price than the chemical fertilizers.
FERTILIZER: Organic fertilizer from digestate also contains more micronutrients than chemical fertilizer, which will replenish the soil for long lasting soil fertility.
