Background
In the Eastern Shan State of Myanmar, there is no low-cost cooking fuel supply for the rural area. Low-cost LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) or Municipal Natural Gas are neither available. As a result, burning wood fuel becomes the common cooking practice for low-income households.
Our involvement
In 2016, we were connected to a charity orphanage in East Shan State of Myanmar, which has been struggling to provide adequate cooking fuel for 50 children.
What is the issue?
Currently, the orphanage staff requires to purchase at least 1 tone of wood fuel for cooking every week.
Wood fuels is expensive to the orphanage. There is also high chance of wastage, especially during the rain season, when the wood is often rotten by rain. Also, the process to prepare wood for cooking is often time-consuming and physically exhaustive, these creates daily burden for the young staff in the orphanage.
From a boarder perspective, wood fuel is not an environmentally friendly for the region. Wood are often harvested from non-certified forest. Also, households are not equipped with proper fireplace for burning wood, therefore, smoke particles are emitted in an uncontrollable practice.
What is the solution?
Sustainable Cooking
Our vision is to enable the orphanage to generate their own cooking fuel. We will install a set of small Biogas digester system near the residence campus, through which to generate biogas for daily cooking.
What is Biogas Digester System?
Biogas Digester converts animal and human waste, food waste, into biogas (methane), which can be used directly as cooking fuel.
Immediate Benefits:
Daily waste from 50 pupils and 7 Pigs can generate 1.5m3 of biogas, which supports up to 10 hours of continuous cooking at a single stove.
Once the system is installed, the system can immediately support cooking for all the children every day!
Staff, and children will be free from laboring on preparing and chopping wood for burning.
Long Terms Benefits:
This system eliminates wood cutting and burning for cooking fuel, hence reduces the damage to the environment in the long run.
This will be the pioneering precedent for the villages nearby. This system will be the first biogas station in the region. It will serve as an example for many other villages. We hope that more villages can benefits from the technology!
Who are we?
We are a group of young architect and designers based in Hong Kong. Our studio's visions is to dedicate part of our time to support building project in developing countries in Asia, usually at non-profit basis. Your kind contribution will assist our studio to continue research and support the rural community in developing countries.