Butane prices have subsided but an innovative new recycling program
will have Belizean farmers using a free substitute. And the best part is, they’re
saving dollars by making methane from cow dung! The cows are clueless about
their waste being recycled, and so were we until we visited one of the installation
sites. Here’s how it works.
Jules Vasquez Reporting,
This strange inflated bladder buried in this trench may look like some bizarre
rural contraption, but it’s a very practical low cost energy solution
which produces methane gas from animal waste.
It’s called a biogas digester, or those familiar with the technology
just refer to it as the worm. The technology has been brought to Belize from
EARTH University in Costa Rica. Yesterday Costa Rican Technicians were at this
farm in Maskall Village demonstrating the fairly simple installation which apart
from the massive tubular structure relies on fittings that farmers can pick
up art any hardware store.
Here’s how it works, the plastic tube is pitted into a trench and all
the animal waste is then funnelled in there.
Gerald Tillett, Farmer - Crooked Tree Village
“I raise pigs so in the past I usually the waste from the pen and
throw it on the field with my wheelbarrow but now according to them, but they
only use fresh manure, so according to them I have to continue taking the old
stool and put it on the farm again so they will only use daily fresh manure.”
That fresh manure is left to decompose and the breakdown process produces methane
– and that’s where animal waste turns into real savings because
the methane cane be used for cooking.
Maximiliano Ortega, IICA
“This digestion unit you see here is for an average family of six
and on quick calculation a family of six per year is nearly close to $300 worth 
of butane. Now this system also costs $300. So after a year it pays for itself
because this unit is able to produce close to 7 to 18 hours of gas to cook.
So that’s a lot of money saved.”
But to get the gas out, the farmer has to put the waste in and that’s
where a minimum of livestock comes in.
Maximiliano Ortega,
“To begin with we need a minimum of three animals; maybe one cow,
three pigs, or a combination. Once you start feeding, thirty to forty five days
after it starts to produce the methane for cooking and once you keep on feeding
it, for example you have a pig pen, you have to clean your pig pen daily with
three pigs, all that manure you mix it with water and that’s what goes
into the system. Once it starts operating you’ll have your daily supply
of butane going.”
Which means daily savings for farmers.
Lloyd Flowers, Chairman of the River Valley Livestock Co-op
“I think it is definitely going to help farmers a lot because especially
in terms of the high cost of the butane these days. It is going to be very effective
in helping the farmers in the communities.”
Fortunato Noble,
“How about the waste?”
Lloyd Flowers,
“Well waste is a big problem within all the villages throughout the
area and as what the gentleman was explaining a while ago concerning whatever
type of waste you throw in it turns to gas – it definitely will help a
lot.”
Maximiliano Ortega,
“This is a technology that I hope people will readily accept and embrace,
especially farmers in rural areas and especially with the rising prices of everything.”
Lloyd Flowers,
“Especially in my area I will encourage people to turn to this and
let’s save some money and the environment and to put the kids to school
with the extra change.”
Materials for installation cost $300.00. The program spearheaded by
the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries with assistance from the Inter-American
Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture and the Belize Audubon Society. In
this first round of installations, Biodigesters will be installed at Central
Farm and Yo Creek Agricultural Stations, San Antonio and San Marcos in the Cayo
district, Maskall and Crooked Tree in the Belize district and San Antonio in
the Orange Walk district. In the next phase, additional biodigesters will be
installed countrywide. In Costa Rica, biodigesters are used in urban settings
and even for hotels where their fuel is used to power industrial dryers.
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