Home-scale biodigester | Janice Kelsey & Jody Spangler | TEDxVillanovaU

By equating a biodigester to an heroic baby dragon, Janice Kelsey and Jody Spangler of Solar CITIES, Inc. will give a simple explanation of biodigestion and how to build a Solar CITIES Design IBC Tank Biodigester to produce cooking fuel and fertilizer using manure and food waste.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

Janice Kelsey: Hi, I'm Janice.
Jody Spangler: And I'm Jody.

"Raising baby dragons to save the world."

JK: Saving the world seems
like a pretty big task,

for ordinary people like you and me.

JS: Not for a dragon.

JK: Just for this time together,

we want you to imagine
a world where dragons live,

where all children play on green grass,

where women have access
to clean cooking fuel,

right in their own homes,

where families can light
and heat their homes

at absolutely no cost.

JS: Imagine, all this is true!

JK: Allow us to introduce you
to how together we can make this happen.

We're moms, we're educators

and recently, we and several other women
have been dubbed "the women of biogas".

(Laughter)

We have become part of a growing
global community on Facebook,

called "Solar CITIES Biogas
Innoventors & Practitioners",

founded by dr. Thomas H Culhane.

Over 6,000 members
are learning and sharing

a technology that we believe
is an overlooked technology,

called small-scale biogas,
or home-scale biogas.

This ancient technology is well-known
in countries like India and China.

JS: Still, many people
have never even heard of it.

JK: We're going to introduce you
to your own baby dragon today;

but before we do,

you'll need to understand
the meaning of two words,

biodigestion and biogas.

Most people are familiar with composting.

In composting,

we pile up our leaves
and our grass clippings and garden waste

into one big pile.

Then we turn it from time to time,
to mix air into the pile.

It heats up and it breaks down

because of something
called aerobic bacteria.

That's bacteria that likes air.

After a few months,

we have well-aged compost
that we can put on our garden.

In biodigestion we take our manure,
our food waste and our garden waste

and we put it into a closed container.

The bacteria inside of this container
digest the material,

then we fill up the tank with water

to remove all the air,
because this bacteria does not like air.

This bacteria breaks up the contents
of the container within 24 hours.

In a day, rather than months.

The bacteria inside of you,
me and any animal is anaerobic,

which leads us to the word biogas.

The meaning of the word biogas
is much easier to understand.

The dictionary says that biogas
is a gaseous fuel, especially methane,

produced by the fermentation
of organic matter.

In the relatively
new field of permaculture,

the biogas is considered

one of the "appropriate technologies"
in permaculture design.

Now, to bring biogas
down to a very basic level,

I'm going to illustrate by using a word

that you don't typically hear
in such a prestigious venue as this.

Are you ready?

Fart.

(Laughter)

You knew it was coming.

How many of you men,
maybe even some of you ladies,

lit or knew someone
who lit a fart on fire

because they didn't believe
it would really work?

And it did!

Well, that is an example of biogas
on a very small scale.

Your body is a small-scale biodigester.

You eat food;

the bacteria in your gut digest that food;

it creates gas; and you pass biogas.

Pretty simple, right?

Well, our baby dragon
is much more delicate.

This is the biogas stove in my kitchen.

My baby dragon helps me
to cook my breakfast on biogas,

every morning, with a clean blue flame.

Can you believe that you can cook meals
on poop and food waste?

(Laughter)

Well we're going to show you how,
beginning with conception.

Jodi's going to help us put together
the basic body parts.

What we have here
is an intermediate bulk container.

Now, these containers are used
to ship liquids all around the world.

But once they're done with that,
they become industrial trash.

So we can recycle this trash

and turn it into a source
of sustainable energy.

We first cut a hole in one corner,

and then we cut a hole
in the opposite corner.

Now what Jodi's holding up
are called uniseals.

They're basically rubber gaskets
that create a tight seal with no leaks.

We would normally glue these in,
but we're not going to do that today.

Your baby dragon is going to need
three basic sections:

she is going to need
a mouth and a throat;

she's going to need an outlet
that we'll talk more about later;

and then she is also going to spit fire
when she's old enough.

She's going to spit biogas,

so she's going to need
an outlet for that too.

The gas outlet is basically

a combination of pipes
and plumbing fixtures

that get glued together

and then fastened
to the lid of the container.

Let's take a look inside.

Your little embryo of a dragon

has a thin layer of stone
in the bottom of its belly

to create more surface area
for the bacteria to live on.

Next, your baby dragon

is going to need
some good healthy gut bacteria

so we're going to add
a nice thick layer of fresh manure.

You can use cow, horse, chicken.

Tou can even use dog or human manure
or any combination of those.

If you don't have any animals of your own
offer to help clean out somebody's barn.

JS: They will think you're crazy,
but they'll appreciate it in the end.

JK: Finally, we add water.

Fill the tank with water.

Now, we allow this to incubate
for two to three weeks.

Once the bacteria
has digested what's in the manure

it's going to get hungry,
and it's going to look for food.

And it's going to hatch!

JS: Congratulations!

(Laughter)

JK: You are now the proud parent
of a baby dragon,

or what we call
a solar cities IBC biodigester.

Seriously, this is how easy
and simple the technology is.

But this is a living biological creature
that needs to be cared for.

Caring for a home-scale biodigester
is just like raising a baby dragon.

The first thing we need to learn
about any baby is how to feed her.

She has a mouth but she can't chew:
she's just a baby with no teeth.

We use an InSinkErator

to grind our food waste
with equal amounts of water

to create baby food.

You can also use
a hand grinder or a blender.

It works just as well.

To feed this baby dragon
we simply pour the food into her mouth.

It'll go all the way down to the bottom
where this pipe is cut at an angle.

There you go.

Once inside the belly of the baby dragon,
the food will begin to digest.

A heavier food at the bottom
is going to digest more quickly

because it's closest
to the greatest number of bacteria.

Oils and food that float to the top,

they're going to digest
a little more slowly.

In the middle of the tank
is our digested material.

Now we all know, raising a baby
is all about bodily functions.

So keep in mind,
her belly is full of water

and what goes in must come out.

Yes, your baby dragon pees.

(Laughter)

The liquid will be pulled up
through the hole in that smaller pipe.

I guess you can call this section
your baby dragon's bladder.

JS: This is liquid gold.

JK: That is our very concentrated
and perfect fertilizer.

We can use it on our garden,
we can water our lawn with it,

we even share it
with our gardening friends.

And unlike composting,

our baby dragon is a closed system
at the perfect temperature,

so this fertilizer has lost
none of its nutrient value.

And it shows, obviously it shows.

Because my garden has never been
as productive or as green.

Small-scale,

but there are many places
that can benefit from small-scale biogas.

Our team has chosen three
to highlight for you today:

right here in our own backyard
of Pennsylvania;

a school in Kenya;

and a refugee camp in the Middle East.

We truly believe that together
we can change the world.

Imagine giving women
the ability to feed their families

with clean, free cooking fuel
made from manure and food waste.

This is Susan.

She lives in the Amish countryside,

in a community that rarely uses
electricity tied to the grid.

She has a huge garden,
and plenty of garden waste.

She can use that fuel
to cook and to heat a part of her home,

and she can put the fertilizer
right back on her garden.

We can empower women like Susan
here and around the world

to do this in their own backyards.

JS: Imagine that.

JK: This can also be used

in struggling communities
around the world.

This is a picture of
"Rescue Team Kenya - Community School".

It is located within
an overcrowded labyrinth of tin shacks,

in a hot climate,

with no running water and no real toilets.

The man in the orange shirt
is Robert Ongera Ombeka.

He lived in the slums, he's self educated,
he got himself out of the slum

and now he goes back
every day to change lives.

Together we managed to support Robert
in setting up this little school

with room enough for 15 students.

Sixty-five children showed up
the first day he opened the door.

There is a powerful desire
for education in Kenya,

even among the most vulnerable:

the impoverished, the orphaned,
the hungry and even the sick.

We are all about education.

We care about empowering individuals
to rise above their situation.

But it begins we clean water,
food and sanitation.

Together as a community

we managed to bring clean water,
food and school supplies

to this little makeshift school.

Imagine these children
learning how to grow food

with the fertilizer they helped to make.

Imagine smoke-free cooking
in Kenya and around the world.

Millions of people,
mostly women and children,

would no longer die
from carbon-related illnesses,

every year.

JS: With no need for firewood,
imagine an end to deforestation!

JK: The village of Chittoor,
India, did it.

They call it the smoke-free village:
every family uses a biodigester.

Imagine: free biogas,
no need for firewood, and there's more.

Imagine connecting
bio digesters to toilets.

That would not only provide them

with better sanitation,
clean cooking fuel and fertilizer,

but would also give them dignity.

This is not a toilet that you see here.

This is just the safest place
for this young lady to relieve herself

in Mukuru Slum.

Our third idea relates to refugee camps.

Our first experience
with refugees was in 2005,

when I became the advisor
to a 15 year old boy from Baghdad, Iraq

who came here as a youth ambassador.

We've all seen photos of the refugee camps
growing around the world.

This crisis has become so severe

that the number of people living
in this refugee camp alone

makes it equal to the second
largest city in Jordan.

They have nowhere to go.

This refugee camp has evolved into a city.

This is our crisis, it's happening now.

This is in the news today.

Mass migration,
for various reasons, is real.

Camps like this are not
going away anytime soon.

Imagine clean, accessible cooking fuel
for every family in this refugee camp.

Imagine how simple
a process sanitation becomes,

when dealing with human waste
and food waste right on-site.

Small-scale biogas is scalable:

we can scale it up
and we can scale it down.

Is it for a small family like Susan's,

or is it for a school,
like Rescue Team Kenya,

or is it for a community

like the ever-growing number
of refugee camps in the world today?

Imagine an end to fracking.

This is natural gas.

Imagine no concerns about pipelines
running for your neighborhood,

because we create our own energy.

We keep our waste, it has value.

We turn it into energy, and we benefit.

Imagine freedom from fossil fuels:

countries like India and Sweden

are running buses
and trash trucks on biogas.

We can too.

The possibilities are endless.

The rapid spread of this technology
could have a profound, global impact.

What can you do?

Go online and learn more
about solar cities and biodigestion.

Join the biogas movement,
and do this at home.

Share this with your
local community leaders,

and encourage
your department of agriculture

to take a closer look
at small-scale biodigestion.

Through education,
innovation and outreach,

through the help
of our heroic baby dragons

and a whole lot of love,

we can fix our eyes
on a simple overlooked solution

to what we now call waste.

With biogas, there is no waste.

We need you to help spread
this gospel of God biogas.

JS: This is the sign language for love.

It's also the sign we're using for biogas.

Inlet, outlet and gas.

Imagine.

(Applause)