ARTI, India, Biogas from food waste – Ashden Award winner
This video can be downloaded here: http://www.ashdenawards.org/winners/arti06
ARTI won an Ashden Award for Sustainable Energy in 2006. To find out more visit the link above and check out the Ashden Awards Blog http://ashdenawards.blogspot.com
The Appropriate Rural Technology Institute (ARTI) in Pune has developed a biogas plant which uses food waste rather than manure as feedstock and supplies biogas for cooking. The plant is sufficiently compact to be used by urban households, and over 700 are currently in use.
Pune is a relatively affluent city in south India, and many people use liquid petroleum gas (LPG) or kerosene for cooking. Waste food is often discarded at the side of the road, as in many cities, attracting stray dogs, flies and rats and creating a public health hazard. The ARTI compact biogas plant is made from two standard high-density polyethylene (HDPE) water tanks: the larger tank acts as the digester and the smaller one is inverted and placed into it to serve as a gas-holder. The plant safely digests kitchen waste, food waste or waste flour from mills, thus reducing the problem of waste disposal. A 1,000 litre plant produces sufficient biogas to at least halve the use of LPG or kerosene for cooking in a household, as well as a small amount of liquid effluent which can be used as fertiliser. ARTI has developed the technology, field tested it, and managed the supply of about 700 biogas plants in Maharashtra. Around 100 plants are now being installed every month.
The first-prize Ashden Award to ARTI recognises the enormous potential for using this compact biogas digester in towns and cities, both to supply cooking gas and to assist in the disposal of organic waste.
Duration : 0:5:26
It’s technology …
It’s technology like this that will save the earth, if anything can.
A solution that can be made by anyone, using locally available materials and that is run on readily available waste products.
Fantastic!
Just think of all the energy / gas currently going to waste, and which could be harvested from human & animal manure, as well as organic waste products.
It beggar’s belief that every household one the planet doesn’t do this.
that’s awesome!
…
that’s awesome!
Just wondering does it work under all temperature? i.e. from -40 deg. Cel to +25 deg. Cel.? Say for people living in colder countries can they use this?
To use biogas in a …
To use biogas in a colder climate you have to insulate the tank, and maybe even burn some of the gas produced to heat it. You still end up producing energy though, and dealing with the waste.
Dear Dr. Karve,
A …
Dear Dr. Karve,
A small team of us from the German-American-Egyptian NGO “Solar CITIES” (Connecting Community Catalysts Integrating Technologies for Industrial Ecology Systems) are planning to come to Pune in January to learn how to build these systems so that we can bring the technology to our worksite in the Zabaleen (garbage recycling) neighborhood of Cairo’s Muqattam (near where the landslide was). We have been building solar hot water systems there for the past two years; now need biogas.
Is it possible to …
Is it possible to order your instructional video from overseas (from Germany, California or Cairo), or do we need to wait until we come to India to purchase it? I don’t see a way on the ARTI site for international orders. Anyway, we believe your system will have a very positive impact in the informal and slum communities of Cairo, helping us with energy and waste management, and we are very enthusiastic. Thank you so much for sharing this amazing discovery!!!
This is awesome. I …
This is awesome. I know here in north america somme places do collect organic food waste and turn it in to a fertilizer but the system seem better cause it can produce alot of methane gas which can be used to produce energy. It’s clean and gets rid of garbage.
can someone explain …
can someone explain why the biogas does not push back up the waste feed pipe… and how does the waste get right into the centre of that digester tank..in anticipation of an answer… thanks