Honduran farmer Don Betillo (right) and 44 other farming families working with Sustainable Harvest International in Central America are  now able to harness the methane gas create naturally from decomposing manure and other organic materials.  Don Betillo is standing next to his new biogas digester.  The digester is essentially a long plastic tube into which families pour water and manure mixed with other organic material.  As the material within the digester decomposes in an anaerobic setting, methane gas is released.  The gas can then be tapped and used for cooking.   Francisca Sosa (below left) uses her methane cook stove to prepare traditional rice and beans each day.  She reports that she can cook for eight hours a day on the methane produced from her familys digester.  An added bonus is that the effluent from the biogas digester is also a powerful organic fertilizer.



Families, such as Francisca Sosas, have requested our support in building biogas digesters because of the many hours of labor and the number of trees that are saved by using the cleaner-burning gas stove instead of firewood.  The Sosas and many other families are conserving resources while improving their standard of living.  A $100 donation to SHI builds a biogas digester like Don Betillos.  CLICK HERE to give a biogas digester to a family in need of your support!


Click on the links below to download a pdf version of a manual on biogas digester construction:

• Manual in English

• Manual en Espanol

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