Long ago, walking through a Chinese village, I noticed some of the residents digging an enormous hole next to their house. Ever since that day, when I saw my first methane system put to work in a rural village setting, I have thought methane could help out many more of China's villages.
Today, when I walked into a local copy and print shop here in town, I noticed they were typing up a chart of all the methane projects for the entire county. The government is willing to pay for the resources (concrete, sand, etc) if a household is willing to provide the labor to dig and build the tank. Why do they give out such a good deal?
The system is quite easy, actually. Many of the rural families raise pigs. If you have a few pigs, you might as well invest the time in making a pit to collect the manure. If the manure is shoveled into the tank, the methane will be trapped and tapped. Lines from the tank can run a gas stove and several lights, depending on how much manure and what season it is (colder months produce less gas).
The folks in the copy shop were really wondering why the foreigner was so interested in methane collection systems. "It's free," they said. Sure, for the farmer. The local government's investment in such a tank, though, is an excellent method of economic and rural development.
Let's think through this a minute. The methane provides gas for cooking and light. If these farmers instead used electricity, which most houses have anyway, it drives up the electricity bill, which is not that easy to pay sometimes. If they use wood for cooking, they have to either spend money to buy the wood or time to collect wood from their land. Manure is not only free, but they can actually gain something from getting rid of it! It is almost something for nothing.
The folks in the copy shop asked me, "Does America have methane tanks?" No. (Well, maybe, but basically, no, we do not need to use methane to cook and turn on the lights). Their response: "Oh, America is so developed!" These are folks turning around to make such comments from their computers.
The point is not that such and such a place is developed, but that development does not come all at once. We should use appropriate technologies and projects to develop one level above what is currently possible. Nobody in this little town uses methane. Why? They do not need to, they have plugs that have electricity in them and gas tanks delivered when their stoves are running low.
But for the villages out here, this is excellent. I give my kudos to the county governments in these areas who are using money for these methane collection projects. This is money that is very well spent and perfectly suited for the need and situation. Simple and suited.
