China

Biogas Digesters and Clean Cookstoves

This project builds biogas digesters that convert organic waste into clean renewable energy to fuel clean cookstoves.

Greenhouse Gasses
Reduced:

CO₂

Carbon Dioxide

CH₄

Methane

Solution 64 in Drawdown – Methane Digesters (Small)

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What it does

Much of rural Sichuan Province in China lacks proper waste management degrading hygiene and creating methane gas emissions that are 25 times more harmful to the planet than CO₂.

This project helps solve these problems by installing biogas digesters that decompose organic waste, turning it naturally into clean fuel that replaces the need to burn coal or wood. It improves the health of the local communities by creating a sanitation system that provides a waste collection point and creates compost for fertilizer that increases agricultural productivity. Digesters solve a nasty, unhealthy problem while delivering value to users on multiple levels: clean fuel, healthier homes and better crops.

Bottom Line: Help more families build biogas digesters and transform harmful global warming emissions into clean, renewable energy.

How it works

Biogas is a mixture of methane and CO₂ that resembles propane and can be used in all the ways propane is used. Biogas needs a methane producing bacteria to be successful and these are found in animal waste, food scraps and sewage. In this project, a biodigester is built below animal pens so that manure flows directly into a chamber. The waste naturally decomposes, producing methane gas that is piped to a cookstove inside the house as clean cooking fuel. At the end of the process, the digester also produces a very effective organic fertilizer that can be directly applied to farm fields, creating a natural cycle of quality crops. Compost not only saves money on fertilizer for farming families, it also provides a source of income when extra compost can be sold.

Benefits

Reduces greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 750,000 tonnes a year
Cuts the use of coal in households by 340,000 tonnes a year
Provides clean, affordable and convenient cooking fuel
Generates extra income for families through savings on purchases of coal or firewood and the use and sale of self-produced organic fertilizer
Benefits 400,000 low-income rural households
Provides jobs and financial support in a region with an average per capita income slightly more than US $400 per year

Challenges

For smallholder farmers and their families, biogas digesters are difficult to afford due to financial constraints
Once using biogas digesters, households need ongoing financial and technical support for periodic maintenance
Reaching out to rural households that are not yet participating in the project and informing them about the benefits and affordability of biogas digesters requires sustained effort

Who it helps

This project improves living conditions for hundreds of thousands of the poorest people in Sichuan, China. By significantly reducing greenhouse gas, this project verifiably reduces carbon pollution.

Testimonials

There is no longer any need for me to buy charcoal for my cooking. – Owner, female 8-9 year-old digester
The stable pits and lagoon were very smelly before and there were flies. Now with the digester we don’t have that problem any more. – Owner, female 7-8 year old digester
I arise at 5 AM, and within several seconds the cooker starts to work so that I am able to boil water and cook rice before I go to the fields. – Owner, male 8 year old digester

Why we chose this project

“The project exclusively addresses the target group of low-income rural households in China’s Sichuan province, who are not able to participate in the ongoing public biogas promotion scheme without further financial and technical support. Each of the project households exists on an average daily per capita income of just slightly more than one US dollar.

Beyond its massive reduction of GHG emissions, the project has enormous co-benefits for the participating poor rural households. Improved health, sanitation, income and better crops are just some of the benefits enjoyed by local households.

According to latest scientific research by the Center for Sustainable Environmental Sanitation (CSES) at the University of Science & Technology in Beijing, the project contributes notably to achieving at least 14 out of 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) in its Chinese target areas.”

—Sid Yadav, CEO Global Offset Research