17 December 2008

Innovative System Treats Waste, Produces Fuel in Ecuador

U.S. students developing alternative fuel for use in household cooking

This little girl in the village of Gonquis, Ecuador, is among those whose health could benefit from installation of a biogester.

By Nancy L. Pontius
Special Correspondent

Littleton, Colorado — In mountain villages of Ecuador, firewood can be difficult to find. “Some families need a two-day trip just to find enough wood to cook a few meals,” Chris Hardrick, a Fort Lewis College physics and engineering student, told America.gov.

As an alternative to burning wood, U.S. students are developing a low-cost cookstove that uses animal and food waste as an energy source.

Their work is supported in part by a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in its People, Prosperity and the Planet (P3) national design competition. (See “U.S. College Students Offer Innovations in Global Sustainability.”)

Biogas stoves designed by the student chapter of Engineers Without Borders at Fort Lewis College in Colorado combine a simple cookstove burner with a biogas digester that creates methane gas from organic wastes, providing a cleaner, more efficient fuel source for cooking and heating.

When Fort Lewis students visited Ecuador in August 2008, students observed that one of the major problems facing the villages was the use of household open fires for cooking and heating.

Burning biogas instead of wood can improve indoor air quality and therefore reduce health problems associated with breathing smoke from fires, Hardrick said. In addition, biogas use reduces depletion of forests and vegetation, improves sanitation and reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Biogas digesters also produce a high-quality organic fertilizer for crop production.

“We’re extremely excited about this project,” Hardrick said. “Almost the entire engineering and physics department [at the college] is working on it.”

Students now are building and testing two digester prototypes to determine which design is more effective. The longer the wastes are digested, the more methane is produced, he explained.

Students estimate a family-size biogas unit would cost $120 to $150. Units also could be built for an entire village. “Biogas might also generate heat and light for homes,” he added.

“Biogas digesters are not complicated to build and do not require high-tech materials,” he said, adding that students plan to show Ecuadorians how to build and maintain the units without outside assistance when the students return to Ecuador in July 2009.