Plant installed by Shanxi Mothers in China (photo: Martin Wright Ashden Awards)

Building fixed dome plant in Nepal

Floating drum plant in India

Building fixed dome plant in India

Biogas Technology in China, India and Nepal

The projects set up in China, India and Nepal continued effectively in different ways.

The technical weaknesses of the early Chinese project were overcome by setting up the biogas research centre in Chengdu. The basic Chinese concept was refined and quality standards defined. This allowed technicians to be trained to supervise the building of plants to a good quality. Many local agencies were still involved in the building of plants, but they had to used trained people. The programme has developed at a slower rate, but there seems to have been a much lower failure rate.

The Indian programme became much less centralised, as different groups adapted the fixed dome design so it could be built in India. KVIC adapted by developing glass reinforced plastic floating drums as an alternative to steel drums, but the price was still higher. Several designs of fixed dome plant, based on the Chinese designs were developed such as the Janata and Deenabandu designs. As different NGOs and private companies manufactured these designs, quality became more variable.

In Nepal, the single company that had been set up to make biogas plants was replaced by several smaller ones (between 40 and 50). However, quality control was maintained by BSP (Biogas Support Programme, set up under SNV). The plants that were built mainly used the fixed dome design developed by DCS. BSP did careful follow-up work and has evidence that 98% of plants were still working 5 years afer they were built.

The three programmes were successful, because the respective governments offered subsidies. This  allowed the government to have central control of quality. The biogas training institute claims over 12 million plants in China, based on thorough records. The numbers in India are less clear, but there must be more than 2 million plants. BSP (now Biogas Sector Partnership) in Nepal has thorough records for over 172,000 plants (with a claim of having more per head of population than anywhere else in the world).