An Alternative to Wood and Charcoal?

(... or even kerosene)

Methane. It is a gas found everywhere, especially in the vicinity of cattle and other herbivores. Noting special there, then.

But it can be "manufactured" and harnessed at no cost (other than setting up), and can be used for cooking. It does not produce smoke like wood, charcoal or kerosene, so will not irritate the eyes and lungs of people using it.

Trees do not need to be cut down to produce it, so the local environment is not decimated. Trees help to keep topsoil intact. Get rid of the trees and you eventually lose topsoil.

Methane can also be used to run a petrol motor, such as a power generator. Other than the cost of the generator (6,500 shillings), this could give free electricity - not a lot, admittedly, but enough for electric lights - no more candles, hurricane lamps or batteries.

Or, maybe it could run a petrol-powered water pump at a borehole, or to pump water from a river to a community.

But what is needed to make methane?

Waste. Animal waste (droppings) and vegetable waste (husks, outer leaves of vegetables), in fact most anything that rots down. If placed in an oxygen-free container, methane will be produced.

It is easy enough to produce. It is clean to use, and it does not rely on the sun, although the collector needs reasonable warmth to work. Most places in Kenya are warm enough.

Cooking on methane is similar to cooking over wood or charcoal. It is a lot easier to make the change to methane than it is to start using other alternatives such as a solar cooker.

KCIS has now designed a methane collector that is made, for the most part, out of scrap or other used materials (naturally), so it is cheap.

We are just waiting to prove it and then pass on the technology to all.