Travelogues+and+Meetups

This page is for giving personal accounts of visits to see digesters, meetups with other AD aficionados, etc.

=Travelogue: Technology Transfer in a Bolivian Biogas Program= (Originally Posted on the AD Listserv April 15th, 2010 by Vergil Weatherford): For the most part, this list is used as a forum for giving and getting technical advice related to anaerobic digestion. Today though, I wanted to bring a bit more of a social bent to the list, and tell a bit of a story of a meetup with a fellow digestion-lister. For those of you who don't know me, I have been researching tubular polyethylene digesters with greenhouses specifically for cold climates. I spent the months of February and March, 2010 in Cusco, Peru, working at the UNSAAC/UPC biodigester laboratory, started a group from Polytechnic University of Catalunya. Antoni Mas, Davide Poggio, Thibault Perrigualt and a number of other [|UPC students] got the laboratory running (under the supervision of Ivet Ferrer). Research still continues and includes participation from students from the local university ([|UNSAAC] ), and visiting researchers as well. My study is a continuation of some of the work done by Thibault (for completion of his PhD) in which we are building and verifying a thermal model of the adobe-greenhouse-tubular-biodigester system (for a more thorough description of the technology, I refer you to Jaime Martí Herrero's fantastic manual). My research campaign is coming along well, primarily focused around gathering enough data to verify--and potentially improve--the thermal model. I have collected data on solar radiation, wind speed and direction, and a multitude of temperatures in and around the test digester: ambient, soil, greenhouse, slurry, headspace, etc. It's fantastic to have a place to conduct my research, and I'd like to duly thank everyone else who contributed to this facility, particularly Davide, who has been a great guide and mentor in getting my trip organized. I'm beginning to understand the behavior of this simple greenhouse system more, and I will certainly update the list once I complete my study. However, the main reason I wanted to write was not to talk about my research, but to tell a story. ..

Jaime Martí Herrero, who is a frequent contributor to this list, invited me for a visit in Bolivia, just an hour's plane ride from Cusco (or 10 hours in bus). As my knowledge of polyethylene-tube digesters is mainly technical, I figured it would be well worth it to see the more practical side, and check out what biogas-related activities are going on in Bolivia! As it turns out, Jaime--and the rest of the fabulous [|GTZ-Bolivia] Biodigester team--has built a vibrant program of AD technology transfer around capacitación (training) of biodigester technicians, installation, R&D, and follow-up support to families. I was furtunate enough to go along for the ride on a week-long technician training and digester-to-digester survey effort in Cochabamba, about 6 hours south of La Paz (where Jaime's team is based). The story I have to tell may only be interesting to some of you, but I hope it encourages other listers to meet up and check out what other folks have going on. I find it fascinating how much more can be learned by sharing first-hand in the successes--and difficulties--of another's work. I'm also interested to see whether this e-mail spawns a thread in the difficult subject of the social and cultural challenges to widespread adoption of household AD technology. If you're interested in reading further, you can continue below the closing. If not, I'll end it here so you can get on with your day which I hope involves some AD of one sort or another. Happy digesting to all, and keep up the fantastic work!

Regards, Vergil

Vergil Weatherford MS Candidate Building Systems Engineering University of Colorado - Boulder, USA

Ok, here goes. Keep in mind I'm an engineer and not a travel writer, so I hope it's not too boring!

I arrived in La Paz via plane from Cusco on a Sunday in mid-march, and took a taxi down off the "altiplano" (high-plain) into the crazily vertical city, which essentially sprawls down into a deep bowl surrounded by mountains on one side and the pancake-flat altiplano on the other, from 3000 meters above-sea-level at its lowest to 4100 meters at the rim. I met Jaime at his downtown apartment, and we headed out shortly thereafter for a walking tour of the city, as we lit into discussions of biogas, building energy efficiency (another shared passion), and the general history and politics of the americas. Fueled by coffee and interesting conversation, we stayed up late that night looking over some of my preliminary data and discussing the challenges of implementing a successful family-scale digester program, particular to Bolivia's culture, economy, and agriculture (which I would come to see with my own eyes soon enough). We awoke early the next day to meet up with the rest of the crew at the GTZ office who were heading down to Cochabamba together (5 of us in all). Cochabamba is about 1000 meters lower than La Paz, and much warmer. While my academic interest lies in the technical issues with cold-climate digesters, I was thrilled to get to see a number of these moderate-climate digesters (without greenhouses), as the fundamental technology--and many of the problems--are the same no matter what the temperature. As monday was a travel day, we didn't do much besides check in to the hotel, head out for dinner, and make a few plans for the week. Jaime was to lead the 3-day technician training, with the help of Gabriel and occasionally Victor, the Cochabamba-native GTZ biogas technician. The rest of the crew were assigned the duty of visiting as many of the previously-installed digesters in the area as possible, to collect data on the success and--just as importantly--failure of these "biodigestores familiares", or family-sized biodigesters. I was given the liberty to join either group on a given day, as an observer/helper. The team is quite jovial, and predominantly Bolivian, so I quickly picked up on some of the local sayings and popular foods and culture. One of the distinct features of Cochabamba culture (besides it's famously good Bolivian food) is the gathering of locals in small groups on the main plaza every night to discuss, and politely argue, points of politics, religion, and philosophy. Jaime showed me how to sidle up to a group and stand sideways with one ear in to listen in politely without causing the circle to open up with the expectation of serious participation in the discussions. In a beautiful demonstration of true democracy, the just one person is allowed to speak at a time, and to finish--without interruption--their turn on the floor. The next day we headed out together to the site of the digester-installation training, where 15 new technicians were to be certified by GTZ's team to install and maintain digesters in their communities, primarily associations of small-scale dairy farmers with 2-5 cows apiece. The attendees are volunteers from the associations, interested in being champions of the technology and supporting its adoption by others in the community. The first day was an intensive lecture, with a complete overview of the technical--and social--aspects of a family-sized digester installation. I decided to head out with the team taking surveys of digester-owning families, to see what goes on after a biodigester gets installed. We visited quite a few functioning digesters, some of which were several years old. We fixed a few minor problems, most commonly the gas tube getting clogged at the pressure relief valve, where a small piece of steel wool is stuffed to react with the H2S and reduce bad odors inside the kitchen. The families are supposed to change the steel wool on a regular basis (every 2 months) but few families actually did. What GTZ has been finding out is that there are many factors that influence the success of a biodigester installation. Interestingly, 90% of the reasons the digesters were abandoned or broken, were purely social and cultural. The technology itself is relatively robust in comparison to the failures that come are derived from an ignorance or disinterest on the part of the family (through no fault of their own) to use the digester. If the family is above a certain economic level, it seems that biogas doesn't compete well with liquid natural gas (in small, 20lb tanks) and the fertilizer quality of the biol isn't enough to change habits away from buying synthetic fertilizer. Alternately, families for whom fuel cost is a larger portion of their income, seem to take a greater interest in getting the full benefits from their digesters. It was striking to see the level of interest and excitement in the technology on the part of some families, and the apathy/disinterest of others. Wednesday morning I went with Jaime and the training group on a tour of several functioning digesters. GTZ uses these group site visits as an effective way of addressing questions that trainees may have after a full day's lectures. The host families are typically very proud of their digesters, and are pleased to show them to a group of technicians-in-training. In the afternoon, the training crew split up into two teams to install 2 biodigesters. . . there was full participation from the trainees and the families. I went with one of the groups to observe and take photos. The Señora of the household plied the workers with Chicha, a fermented corn drink, and cerveza. The whole atmosphere was festive, though I certainly took note of how Victor and Gabriel kept progress moving forward by assigning tasks and demonstrating construction techniques. At the end of the day, there were 2 fully installed digesters, and a whole team of inspired biogas technicians ready to install digesters on their own the following day. What GTZ is doing in Bolivia is slowly building interest and capacity in the technology, and learning from mistakes as they go. While it would be tempting to pour a lot of money into the program and focus on building a lot of digesters in a short amount of time, the failure rate would most certainly be very high. Now that they have a team of highly-capable technicians, GTZ has started to build the capacity within the communities to build and maintain digesters in order to ensure long-term sustainability of the program. However, this brings up a whole new set of issues. On Thursday, a crew of us visited a dozen or more biodigesters built buy a GTZ-trained community-member, who won a contract to build 45 biodigesters within the community, under the direction of the association's council. Unfortunately, getting family buy-in is the most difficult part, and this contractor wasn't prepared for the amount of time and effort is required to train and encourage families to use their digesters. Of the digesters we visited that day, only 1 or 2 were fully functioning, with happy customers. The rest of the families seemed rather disenchanted or completely uninterested in the technology, and many had unfinished digesters that were supposed to be completed "some time in the future." One can't necessarily blame the contractor, who probably didn't forsee the mountain of issues he would encounter, especially since the construction of these tubular digesters is fairly easy with some training. It didn't help that the president of the association decided to leave about halfway through, so it was very hard to organize the stakeholders into meetings. Learning from this and other experiences, GTZ has begun changing their tactics for now to downsize the number of digesters installed, weeding out all but the families who REALLY want a digester. With smaller numbers but higher success rate, they hope to build understanding and respect for the technology within the communities. If they get a formal request from an association to build 50 biodigesters, Jaime and the team are happy if they can whittle it down to only 15 digesters, as long as they are the families that really need them and want them. On Friday, dirty and exhausted, we drove back up to La Paz, debriefing from the week during the long drive. We stopped for a second time at a little restaurant to get "charca can", or shredded llama barbeque served over corn. That weekend, I visited the chemistry labs at the local university where Rene Alvarez has been conducting experiments on llama and alpaca manure as digestates. I also went with a small group up to the altiplano to take a look at some of the greenhouse digester that GTZ has been building. Because they are protected from UV and from children and livestock, these digesters tend to stay in good shape, even over time. Even though it is chilly and quite windy on the altiplano, I could tell just from sticking my arm in the digester that the air was quite warm, maybe 35 or 40 degrees.