Indian families cook with their own biogasThe majority of India's rural population uses the Chula, an inefficient clay stove, for cooking. A family's income is less than USD 400 a year, so people depend on cheap fuels. Collecting firewood often conumes a lot of people's time and means walking up to eight kilometres. Traditional cooking is not only a waste of heat energy, it also produces harmful smoke which threatens families' health.The local NGO AKKPS installs small household biogas plants to promote this type of energy generation in rural areas. Biogas is produced from cow dung and organic waste in an underground tank by anaerobic bacteria. The remaining sludge is also a valuable organic fertilizer. In addition to improved health conditions, people also benefit economically from the project. Up to eight employees from the region will be involved in the construction of each plant and others will be trained in maintenance.How do biogas projects help fight global warming?In biogas facilities, biomass ferments into biogas in sealed digesters. Biomass may consist of organic waste or dung from cows or other animals. In countries like India or Vietnam, families use the gas from small biogas plants for cooking. This reduces CO2 emissions that would be produced by cooking with wood or charcoal. Biogas plants also prevent methane from escaping into the atmosphere - as is the case when organic waste is stored in a mine. Instead, the resulting gas is fed directly from the closed container to the cooking units.