A World Powered by Poop?

Written by Green Empowerment Technical Manager, Elise KittrellA world powered by poop. Poop you say? Gross, right? Well not for the RedBioLAC, a consortium of biogas practitioners in Latin America and the Caribbean that meet annually to find ways to turn animal waste, human waste and organic waste into methane gas for cooking and a liquid fertilizer called biol. Last September, Green Empowerment Ecuador Program Manager Sam Schlesinger and I traveled to Iguazú, Brazil to participate in RedBioLAC’s annual conference, which gathered nearly 200 people . The conference had two phases – small scale (family size) and large scale (industrial) biogas trainings, followed by site visits, case studies and research.Some of my favorite moments from the conference are below:

  • Construction of a tubular biodigester, giving participants hands-on practice with the technology
  • Visit to a local pig farm where biogas is used to power a local brick-making factory
  • Discussions on biodigester research, including new and innovative uses like powering power washers
  • Networking with fellow biodigester enthusiasts!

Green Empowerment serves as the RedBioLAC Secretariat and plays a key role in organizing the network’s convenings. Planning is already underway for its next conference in CUBA!View additional photos from the conference on Facebook.






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