Home Biogas

Home biogas has been around for thousands of years. It was used for heating bath water in Assyria in the 10th century and Persia during the 16th century AD. Marco Polo wrote of ‘covered sewage ponds’, and the use of biogas goes back 2,000-3,000 years in Chinese literature.

So we can see that home biogas is something familiar around the house! Millions of people are currently using biogas as fuel for cooking and lighting in many countries. Just in China alone, and up until 2012,  there were 42 million households using biogas*. The beauty of a home unit is that instead of some big company providing you with gas, you are in charge of your energy production.

So what is biogas? It is an combustible gas mixture comprising around 60% methane and 40% carbon dioxide. Gas forms by breaking down organic materials, such as animal (and human) dung or vegetable matter, through microbiological activity. At temperatures (30 – 40°C or 50 – 60°C) in an anaerobic environment.

OK, that is this biogas science, but I hear you ask how I make biogas in my home.? In our free publication, What Can Biogas Do For You, we show the most popular home biogas designs? Popular designs are the Chinese fixed dome digester and the Indian floating cover biogas digester. There are other designs, which you can research by looking through the download section. You can always purchase a unit off the shelf if you want to avoid building a biogas plant. Please take a look at the biogas kits page for some ideas.

A small home biogas unit in an urban environment can produce biogas from just a 1Kg of daily organic waste. Suppose your family lives in a rural setting. In that case, you have access to much more organic biomass, and you will produce considerable amounts of home biogas to heat all your water and power your whole living area.
* ISO TC 255 Business Plan 3.0, Draft Plan, January 2014.
More information on the ARTI digester and Tube digester