Waste to energy with biogas

“Waste to energy with biogas pilot project”, Richmond Vale Academy, St. Vincent

Our association has granted an energy project to Richmond Vale Academy in St. Vincent and the Grenadines – a biogas project. The funding is done so that the scheduled repayments of the loan for the solar system are instead transferred to this biogas project on St. Vincent.

Richmond Vale Academy has for some years had this kind of small biogas digester which runs on kitchen waste. 1.5 kilo of waste is mixed with 15 litres of water into a digester where the organic matter is decomposed and produces methane gas. This gas can be used for 5 hours of cooking and thus prevent the burning of fossil fuels with its emission of destructive greenhouse gases that lead to global warming. What is left in the digester is a liquid fertilizer, which gives valuable nutrients to the vegetable garden or farm.

The project aims to spread this clean and carbon neutral technology to many more on St. Vincent by setting up some pilot systems. Five families are trained to build their own biogas digester and supplied with most of the materials.

An average family of 5-7 members uses from 4-5 hours of cooking gas daily with a cost of about US$ 300 per year. The cost of the biogas system can thus, without calculating the value of the fertilizer, be repaid in three years. Richmond Vale Academy is currently looking at finding less expensive materials to bring the price of a biogas system down and make it accessible to more people.

The project started in December 2016, and ended in December 2017.

Open or download a Biodigester Presentation on the biogas system (1.5 MB).

Open a Youtube video on the biogas project on St. Vincent.

 

 

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