The project activity consists of setting up small-scale household biogas plants using cow dung to substitute wood used to fuel inefficient mud stoves. The technology reduces uncontrolled deforestation in the area, improves sanitary conditions by providing a facility to boil off drinking water, and increases overall health by reducing kitchen smoke.
The project activity is being implemented as a programme in nine states of India, namely Rajasthan, Chattisgarh, Bihar, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh. The purpose of the project activity is to set up household biogas plants in order to utilize biogas for household purposes. The biogas plants have between 1 and 15 cubic meters of installed capacity. Each household will utilize the dung of its cows to feed the digester for the production of biogas for cooking purpose and heating of hot water. The cattle dung is fed into the digester and left without interference for anaerobic digestion to take place. After three to four days, biogas thus generated is supplied to the individual households.
The aim of the project is to replace common household practices as using inefficient wood fired mud stoves technology with clean, sustainable, and efficient biogas. Through this substitution, non-renewable biomass wood as energy source is replaced with renewable biogas.
The project contributes to the sustainable development of the communities and the project regions by reducing greenhouse gas emissions by avoiding the uncontrolled burning of non-renewable biomass while switching to biogas: