Update on our Marquard digester

Months after our previous update we remain happy with the progress we have made with our biogas digester installed at Marquard Hall although, there remains room for improvement. The kitchen staff has begun to use the gas on a regular basis and we are in the process of working out monetary savings per month from substituting LPG with biogas. We plan to share the details of the savings in the near future on this blog. We remain grateful to everyone who is working alongside us to make this project a success.

On the technical side, the bugs seem to be well adjusted to the canteen waste. In the beginning we experienced some problems with pH fluctuations; however, the pH has since stabilised to an optimal operating one for some time. We have also put together an inexpensive toolkit to for regular testing and adjustments of digester as needed, for instance we use a swimming pool kit to test the digester’s pH and builder’s lime to adjust pH among other tools.

As the year draws to a close, we are working towards handing over full ownership of the digester to the Marquard Hall management. I should mention also that there are exciting prospects on the horizon for our group to replicate this work to less formal settings; which we are very excited about! In general, we are looking forward to seeing how this work shapes up in the near future to demonstrate, albeit on a smaller scale, how energy provision and sanitation problems can be addressed in African cities.