IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS for "3 Best Ideas"
1. The Shape of the Community: Sabana Grande, Nicaragua
- Approx. 5 collections of houses, 20-30 individuals in each
- Collections of houses also tend to be near water wells (pozos), general stores (pulperias), and mills (molinos)
2. The Typical Nicaraguan Diet (from http://grupofenix.org/courses/course-handbook/)
- gallo pinto, a mixture of red beans and rice fried in veg oil
- corn tortillas
- cabbage salad
- locally made salty cheese
- meat or chicken
3. The Types of Biogas Digesters
- The Indian biogas digester (expandable cylinder or dome. The dome is made of sheet metal-- it moves up and down. The base is made with bricks and cement.
- The Chinese model (permanent structure. Appears more shallow)
- Sri Lankan model (Seems more extensive, like it might require more equipment to build)
4. The Standard Design Plan for a Homestead with a Biogas Digester...
5. The Composition of the Raw Material and Implications for Digester Model
- Plant solids do not flow through pipes. Plant solid as the raw material fits best with a 'single batch digester.' In these digesters, the tank is opened between each batch of plant material. The plant material is removed and can be used as fertilizer; fresh plant matter is added
- "Most vegetable matter has a much higher carbon - nitrogen ratio than dung has, so some nitrogen producers (preferably organic) must generally be added to the vegetable matter, especially when batch digestion is used. Weight for weight, however, vegetable matter produces about eight times as much biogas as manure, so the quantity required is much smaller for the same biogas production. A mixture of dung and vegetable matter is hence ideal in most ways, with a majority of vegetable matter to provide the biogas and the valuable methane contained in it." (-http://www.habmigern2003.info/biogas/methane-digester.html)
