Status report

Captains log: May 5th, 2011

I've been busy. Most recently I spend two days at the hotel in the Niokolo Koba National Park helping install a biogas digester that will run off of kitchen scraps and produce cooking gas. The hotel is very much a hotel: multiple stories, outside walkways, a bar, a pool, etc. Being here as long as I have finding a "hotel" that so closely resembles a hotel is fairly amazing. Although that concept is probably not remarkable to you. Anyway, back in the day this hotel used to be full to capacity. Also back in the day there used to be sizable lion and elephant populations in the park. Not so much anymore for both cases. Nowadays it's mostly families looking to take their kids on a "safari" that visit the park.

The main motivation for the digester stems from the plight of all West African nature reserves: an infestation of baboons and monkeys. Throwing out kitchen scraps or composting them only attracts and encourages them even more. A few months ago a British researcher (whose research consists of "surprising monkeys to see what noises they make"), somehow heard that I had some experience with biogas digesters and asked if I would be interested in helping her build one there. This was welcome news because I had finally admitted to myself that the digester I made here in Kedougou was more about the actual building of it than a sustainable project that I intended on seeing through. With everything else I am trying to wrap up, the digester fell off the bottom of the list. So having the opportunity to put my experience into practice in a more sustainable way was very welcome.

The digester packed into the truck. (Some assembly required.)

Making some modifications to the tank.

Soaking some manure to start the digestion with.

Painting the inside of the drum to keep it from rusting.

We spent a lot of time inside barrels. :) In this case attaching the plumbing pieces for the gas reservoir.

Voilà! One biogas unit. The kitchen scraps will go into the grey tube sticking out the big white reservoir. They will then be broken down into CO2 and Methane by the microorganisms present in the manure. The gas leaves via the yellow hose and gets stored in the two blue barrels which rise up as they fill. The yellow tube leading away from the barrels gets attached to a special stove range and that is how you can cook with kitchen scraps!

The A team. Zach, Oumar, Laye, and Tabitha.