EN-01 · 02 Energy
Kitchen-scale biogas digester
A sealed vessel that turns food scraps and manure into cooking gas and a liquid fertilizer, closing a loop that most kitchens send to a landfill.
Origin
Household digesters across India, China and Central America
Materials
- A sealed tank or IBC with an inlet, outlet and gas line
- Kitchen scraps and, where available, manure as inoculant
- A simple stove or burner rated for biogas
Method
- 01
Site the vessel in a place that stays above roughly 15°C, out of hard frost. Cold slurry is a still slurry.
- 02
Start with a manure inoculant so methanogens are present. Food waste alone is slow to begin.
- 03
Feed a slurry, not dry scraps. Keep the pH near neutral; citrus and meat in bulk will sour the tank.
- 04
Pipe the gas through a small moisture trap to a dedicated burner. Do not improvise indoor open flames.
- 05
Draw off digestate as a fertilizer for trees and compost, never as a drink for salad beds unless it is further composted.
What this makes possible
- A daily cooking fuel from waste that used to leave the site
- A liquid fertilizer with measurable nitrogen
- Less methane leaking from a dump, more of it doing work
This is a field record, not a permit. Adapt to local law, climate and skill. If you have run this method, send what you learned.