Originally published July 26 2005
Human fecal matter powers Rwandan prison
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Rwandan prisoners contribute to their prison every day, in the form of human waste, the methane from which powers the prison atop a hill in Cyangugu in southwestern Rwanda, and Wired News reports the facilities received the nearly $50,000 Ashden Award for sustainable energy.
"It's turning a negative social situation in terms of the Rwandan genocide into something that can benefit local people in the local area," said Corrina Cordon, spokeswoman for the Ashden Awards.
He added that prison overpopulation has created a situation where the facilities have significantly increased energy needs.
The overcrowding also leads to large amounts of human waste that the prisons cannot adequately process.
Lwakabamba said that prior to the construction of biogas facilities at a prison situated atop a hill at Cyangugu in southwestern Rwanda, some human waste was being thrown down the hill, near natural bodies of water such as Lake Kivu.
The university rector said that the Rwandan biogas facilities, which are currently in half of the 30 prisons around the country, now contribute half of the energy needs for cooking and lighting in each location.
The process requires putting a given amount of human or other animal waste into a "digester," which ferments it using bacteria to release methane gas that can be captured and then burned as fuel.
The lead engineer on the project, Ainea Kimaro, says that within four weeks, 100 cubic meters of waste can be transformed into 50 cubic meters of fuel.
Kimaro said that while waste smells bad initially, the biogas that is produced has no foul odor.
Martin Wright, an Ashden Awards judge who traveled to Rwanda and visited the prison at Cyangugu, got down on his hands and knees to take a whiff of the manure.
As remarkable as the odorless fertilizer is, Wright said that he was even more impressed by the idea that the new energy project involves people being held on charges of genocide in Cyangugu, just across the border from the volatile civil war raging in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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