To replace traditional fuels and reduce the environment pollution, biogas has been widely applied and produced significant results. Few people know that, at present, most of household appliances can be fueled by biogas.

It is nearly one years Phan Xuan Tai family in Tan Lap Village, Cam Thanh Bac Commune, Cam Lam District, Khanh Hoa Province have not been worried about electricity and fuel costs for daily life and raising 120 pigs because they have been using biogas for every daily activities. If there were not the project on biogas sponsored by the Dutch Government, they would have to pay at least VND200,000 for electricity and fuel costs.

In the dry season when the electricity is cut, Phan Xuan Tai uses biogas-fueled electricity generator so that his children can study. His pigs are warmed by biogas-fueled heater. His family and other people in Cam Thanh Bac Commune have got acquainted with biogas-fueled household appliances such lamps, heaters to warm pigs, and stoves. Phan Xuan Tai said that this equipment is not expensive and suitable with farmers’ budget. For example, lamp costs VND100,000 and heater for pigs costs VND230,000. It is easy to operate this equipment.

In several recent years, because goods prices have been continuously increased, many households and businesses have used biogas-fueled electricity generators to reduce daily expenditures. The most typical is the Khanh Tan Animal Husbandry Joint Stock Company and the High-tech Agricultural Center. Biogas fueled electricity generator is assessed to produce enormous efficiency such as saving energy costs and protect the environment. Especially, this device suits large-scale pig farms. Farmers are aware of advantages of biogas. According to Dinh Cuong from the Khanh Hoa Center for Agricultural and Fisheries Promotion, there are more and more households and production facilities in this province using biogas in their daily life and production. They have built biogas cellars.

Households use their redundant biogas to sell to their neighbors. For example, one household in Dien Loc Commune, Dien Khach District sells its biogas to their two neighbors to cook their meals. In 2009, the project on biogas sponsored by the Dutch Government was started implementation, attracting a lot of farmers’ participation. However, it was a small investment capital. At present, there are nearly 200,000 biogas construction works. Biogas has been widely used in this province. About 800 households use biogas-fueled stove to cook their meals with 100 farms using biogas heater for their pigs and 200 using biogas lamps. Some households can buy biogas electricity generators.

Recently, biogas equipment has been used popularly both in daily life and production. Much equipment used biogas instead of their traditional fuels. Ding Cuong said that Minh Tuan Construction and Service One Member Company Limited in Ho Chi Minh City has gained many breakthrough in using biogas.

This company has invented a new technology to produce biogas. According to this technology one cubic meter of materials in the biogas cellar produces a capacity of 879l biogas per day. The biogas cellar is 4.3cu.m can produce 3,518l biogas per day. The technology has filters that clean biogas, therefore, biogas produced by the company has no unpleasant small like other biogas. The company’s biogas filter technology operates in two ways: absorbing and effervescing. The company uses a filter network that contains special solvent or a kind of acid to absorb Hydro Sulfur (H2S) (a toxic gas that has awful smell like rotten eggs. Therefore, this biogas is very safe when being used to cook meals.

In addition, this company has many products that register copyright patents for many products such as different kind of biogas cookers, biogas rice cooker, biogas water heater, biogas dryer, biogas heater, biogas oven, biogas lamps, biogas electricity generator and biogas engine. It can not be denied that biogas has many advantages. However, many households are not interested in using biogas. The main reason is lack of capital. Although the Dutch Government is supporting the projects on biogas, however, farmers have to pay a lot of money to use biogas or buy biogas fueled electricity. One 6.3cu.m biogas cellar costs more than VND10 million. In addition, recently farmers have to face diseases in their pigs, thus they do not have materials to produce biogas.

By Thuy Tien