Biogas Digesters for Farmers

In rural Vietnam, family farms are building digesters to manage waste and gain access to clean energy. One digester produces enough methane to provide free low-cost energy for cooking or other needs in several homes, saving families money. By channeling and reusing methane from the waste, biodigesters reduce emissions from this greenhouse gas that is 25 times more harmful to the environment than carbon dioxide. Also, families do not have to use firewood, helping to protect local forests. Doo Doo is definitely doing more. Bottom Line: By redirecting methane to become a useful household gas, we can significantly improve life in rural Vietnam while helping the planet.

A biodigester is a mechanical stomach that converts biological waste (a.k.a. poo) into energy. To achieve this transformation, the waste is mixed with water inside the digester. Bacteria decomposes the sludge and produces methane. The digester then directs the gas into homes where it is used for cooking or lighting. And one more thing: the process also creates a sustainable organic fertilizer that enhances crop production.

Your donation will benefit local families who benefit from clean energy and a sanitary healthier, environment, savings of hours of daily work and it benefits the community by creating good local jobs. Added bonus: you’ll also provide hope for the 7.4 billion+ people who call the Earth home.

More Time For Mom

Thanks to biogas digesters, Mrs. Nguyen of the Thai Nguyen province no longer has to collect firewood for cooking. This means she has up to two additional hours that she can spend with her three kids. Mrs. Nguyen spends much of this time educating her children to supplement what they learn in their village school. We are inspired by the profound effect this project has had on her family and many others in Vietnam.

• It was a very hard time when I had to spend many hours a day climbing hills and mountains to collect wood. Now I just go home and turn the biogas cooker on and cook. Now I don’t need to clean pots as often as I did when cooking on traditional stoves. Biogas is very clean. I used to clean pots everyday but now I just need to clean once a week or even once a month. Now I have more time to teach my children and take care of my house. – User 1
• We suffered a lot from mosquitoes and smell and complaints from our neighbors before we build the biogas plant. Our farm is clean now and the bad smell has gone. When I clean the swinery, the manure goes straight to the biogas digester and I use the slurry to fertilize the farm. It’s very good! We have been using biogas for 12 years during which nothing went wrong. It’s really good. – User 2
• This bio-lurry is very good and pest resistant. The tea is tastier ad the leaves are thicker. Fertilized tea with chemicals is normally sold for 90 – 100,000 dongs per kg, while I can sell this tea for 130-150,000 dongs per kg. – User 3

Biogas projects are not easy to execute in developing countries because of the high initial cost of construction and maintenance issues that are attributed to the design of biodigesters and their acclimatization to local environmental conditions.

Despite biogas digesters being manually operated, the waste collection system is designed in a way that minimizes human contact with the waste. The project’s greenhouse gas quantification procedures are complex, but we have found that the calculations are correct and conservative.

—Sid Yadav, CEO Global Offset Research