Preparing for tomorrow’s weekly meeting with the key staff (sort of like a leadership team) out at Sobhan. Dar’s agenda is always much longer than mine. I’m sure tomorrow will be no exception.
But here’s one of the ‘issues’ I have listed.
-- How can we quickly increase the amount of methane generated in our biodigester?
Jumpah was creating more than we could use when Dar and I left for America a few months ago. And our uses were growing: cooking fuel for all three meals; bright lamps for reading and studying, plus keeping some burning through the night for outdoor security; powering a gas motor used to chop greens for pig food. Just when we were getting proud of our accomplishments, ‘blue ear’ invaded six provinces and infected nearly all of our 125 pigs. Over a two-month period, staff members fought the disease but almost half of the pigs died.
‘Poo’ from the survivors now generates enough gas for about two meals per day. Nothing else. Twelve breeding sows survived, barely, but it will be a while before any piglets are birthed and can help add to the poo pits.
Jumpah was creating more than we could use when Dar and I left for America a few months ago. And our uses were growing: cooking fuel for all three meals; bright lamps for reading and studying, plus keeping some burning through the night for outdoor security; powering a gas motor used to chop greens for pig food. Just when we were getting proud of our accomplishments, ‘blue ear’ invaded six provinces and infected nearly all of our 125 pigs. Over a two-month period, staff members fought the disease but almost half of the pigs died.
‘Poo’ from the survivors now generates enough gas for about two meals per day. Nothing else. Twelve breeding sows survived, barely, but it will be a while before any piglets are birthed and can help add to the poo pits.
Some of our options:
-- Buy some piglets (to raise) from the commercial farm.
-- Purchase additional ‘healthy’ sows to eventually get more piglets (a higher cost, but greater investment in the future).
-- Channel sewage from human toilets to the biodigester.
We are working to do the third option, for sure. A newly-purchased pump and 150 meters of soft rubber hose will be delivered to Sobhan tomorrow. The pump will be used to move human sewage once every week or two. The theory says the extra poo will increase the volume of methane.
But the pump will also drain or fill the fishponds, depending on the particular season. It will pump excess rain water from the gardens to neighboring rice fields. Jumpah will also be able to assist poor farmers who need assistance with water issues. Up to now, Jumpah has been paying to rent the equipment each time we have a need. Prices can run as high as $2.50 per hour; A week ago, we rented one for nearly six hours. This morning we paid US$238 for a used system with all the necessary accessories. And eventually, we will try to operate it with methane.
I will come back and post some pics when the system is operating!
Meanwhile, we are still thinking about the other two options, or any others, that will help us rebuild our pig and methane activity. I hope we have time to discuss this tomorrow.
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