Innovative System Treats Waste, Produces Fuel in Ecuador.
America.gov, Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State, 17 December 2008

"Littleton, Colorado — In mountain villages of Ecuador, firewood can be
difficult to find. As an alternative to burning wood, U.S. students are
developing a low-cost cookstove that uses animal and food waste as an
energy source.

Their work is supported in part by a grant from the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA), in its People, Prosperity and the Planet (P3)
national design competition.

Biogas stoves designed by the student chapter of Engineers Without
Borders at Fort Lewis College in Colorado combine a simple cookstove
burner with a biogas digester that creates methane gas from organic
wastes, providing a cleaner, more efficient fuel source for cooking and
heating.

When Fort Lewis students visited Ecuador in August 2008, students
observed that one of the major problems facing the villages was the use
of household open fires for cooking and heating.

Burning biogas instead of wood can improve indoor air quality and
therefore reduce health problems associated with breathing smoke from
fires. In addition, biogas use reduces depletion of forests and
vegetation, improves sanitation and reduces greenhouse gas emissions.
Biogas digesters also produce a high-quality organic fertilizer for crop
production.

Students now are building and testing two digester prototypes to
determine which design is more effective.

They plan to show Ecuadorians how to build and maintain the units
without outside assistance when the students return to Ecuador in July
2009."

http://www.america.gov/st/env-english/2008/December/20081217120606abretnuh0.1866114.html

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Dr. Ann C. Wilkie                          Tel: (352)392-8699
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