In July the Mt. Everest Biogas Project was invited to present our project to the American Alpine Club at their 3 days Sustainable Summits Conference.

Focus of the conference was “to shape and share environmentally sustainable solutions for mountain areas, while also developing global partnerships”.

View the presentation below:

Garry Porter – A Waste Solution for Everest: The Biogas Project

Every year, 12,000 Kg. of solid human waste is carried from the base camps of Mt. Everest and surrounding peaks and dumped into unlined pits in the vicinity of Gorak Shep, elevation 17,000’.

Garry and a team of volunteer engineers from the Seattle area have spent 4 years designing a biogas system to operate in the extreme environment and remote location of Gorak Shep. The design is based on utilizing an off the shelf biogas digester design and modifying it to function in the colder environment of Gorak Shep.

There are thousands of biogas digesters functioning in Nepal, India and China at lower elevations and warmer climates but none in the cold environment of Gorak Shep. They are used to convert human, animal and kitchen waste into methane gas for cooking or lighting and fertilizer for crops.

Garry is the project leader for the biogas system. He is a retired Boeing Company Program manager with over 34 years of engineering/program management experience. Garry holds a MS degree in engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology and an undergraduate degree in civil engineering from the University of Nebraska.

Garry has climbed major mountains in North and South America as well as Nepal and Tibet. His other outdoor activities include biking, running and rock climbing. He just completed the 6 day, 500 mile bike ride in Colorado called Ride the Rockies.