In June of 2010, Michael Yon posted a story on his website about "Gobar Gas" which is used as a fuel source in Nepal.
Mr. Yon tells the history of the idea:
"The insights of a Gurkha veteran named Lalit, whom I met in the jungles of Borneo, at a British Army man-tracking school, were particularly valuable. One day in the jungle Lalit began a conversation by announcing that many of Afghanistan's household needs could be solved if Afghans would adopt "Gobar Gas" production. Gobar Gas could improve the lives of Afghans as it had that of the Nepalese, he said, as he began to explain with great enthusiasm.
"During Lalit's time in Afghanistan, he found nobody who had heard of Gobar Gas--even though Gobar Gas has been a quiet engine of ground-level economic transformation in Nepal and numerous other poor Asian nations."
Gobar Gas is a gas similar to methane that is made by 'distilling' various waste materials.
The article explains:
""Gobar" is the Nepali word for cow dung. The "Gas" refers to biogas derived from the natural decay of dung, other waste products, and any biomass. In Nepal, villagers use buffalo, cow, human, and other waste products for biogas production. Pig and chicken dung are used in some places, as are raw kitchen wastes, including rotted vegetation.
"Gobar is typically mixed with a roughly equal amount of water, and gravity-fed through a pipe into an airtight underground "digester," where naturally occurring bacteria feast on the mixture. This anaerobic process produces small but precious amounts of gas. That gas can be fed directly into a heat source, such as a cooking stove, and used to fuel it."
Gobar gas is 50-70% methane by volume, similar to natural gas, and a convenient source of clean energy. The article further explains:
"After bacteria digest the dung, the by-product is a rich organic fertilizer, sometimes called slurry, or bioslurry. That fertilizer is more effective than raw dung, with important benefits for hands-on farmers. For instance, it doesn't smell bad, and almost all the pathogens and weed seeds have been destroyed."
Please follow the link above to read the entire article. I am not sure how much of this is practical for the United States (we don't have a lot of animals in most communities that produce cow dung), but it is an amazing concept. It would be nice to see this form of energy come to Afghanistan. Not only is the energy clean, it's by-product is clean and useful. What a great idea.
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