Our Solution
Traditional Biogas Systems
An anaerobic digester system is a large tank where microorganisms feed on a mixture of water and organic waste, breaking down the waste and producing three byproducts: methane-rich biogas that is readily burnable as it off-gases from the digester, inert solids that are removed from the digester after years of accumulation, and a nutrient-rich liquid fertilizer.
Anaerobic biogas digester technology is neither new nor unique, however standard biogas technology typically operates at low elevations and in warm climates — where bacteria can easily grow — and with a wide range of fuel including food scraps, animal and human waste.
Ubiquitous in many parts of central Asia, digesters have been broadly constructed as a sustainable waste solution throughout Nepal, China, India and across the global south due to their efficiency for converting waste streams into valuable and sustainable products. China alone has an estimated 8 million anaerobic digesters in operation. The Biogas Sector Partnership Nepal is responsible for implementation of biogas technology across the country, including more than 260,000 biogas digesters constructed to-date.
Our Modified and Customized Technology
What is unique about the Mount Everest Biogas Project is twofold. First, it is a creative adaptation of existing biogas digester technology, re-engineered with customized modifications for operation in the harsh environment of high altitude, and extremely cold conditions.
Second, it will use primarily human waste as the input to feed the microorganisms. Compared to cow waste or food scraps, human waste produces less methane gas in anaerobic digesters. With these two challenges to overcome, the team initiated substantial research and design creating a constructible design in 2017.
The momentum of the project slowed while working to raise sufficient funding to begin building the design that was approved by the community, and the local authorities having jurisdiction. But this project became fundamentally stalled as the pandemic took hold in 2020, completely shutting down our fundraising, along with normal operation of society around the world.
The Pivot
Coming out of the pandemic, Mount Everest climbing tourism has surged in Nepal. In some recent years the amount of human waste collected at Everest Base Camp has been more than double the amount considered for the 2017 design.
Recognizing that our original "finalized" design from 2017 is now undersized and not applicable, the Mount Everest Biogas Project has partnered with anaerobic digester experts from around the world to revise and update our design.
The new design, currently under development, will include the same core components from the 2017 design, but adjust them to be adaptable, modular and flexible to allow variable waste loads from yearly increase or decrease in climbing tourism, all while still providing adequate retention time to break down waste safely.
Recent work with our collaborators in the Cold/High Anaerobic Digestion team has led to a pilot scale digester built in White Horse, Canada. Following the successful operation of this pilot, MEBP is planning to build and operate a replicate of the this pilot digester at Gorak Shep.
Partnerships
Clean Everest 360°
Sunbridge Nepal
Academic Partnerships and Scientific Research
Multiple academic partnerships have been created to inform and validate the design of the Mount Everest Biogas Project. While biogas digesters are common in this part of the world, the MEBP digester will run entirely on human waste from climbers, scientific research was necessary to demonstrate this could be possible.
Climbers at Everest Base Camp ingest an unusually large amount of antibiotics to manage intestinal and respiratory ailments, and limit illness from stopping their chance to summit. The MEBP had to demonstrate that the microorganisms required for anaerobic digestion would not be inhibited by this level of antibiotics and allow the formation of methane to create burnable biogas.
To answer this question, Mount Everest Biogas Project established a long-term relationship with the academic community of Nepal through a joint program with Seattle University and Kathmandu University. Beginning in 2015, the parties began running lab and bench tests with mini-biogas digesters operating at temperature ranges that mirrored the conditions at the site, while using actual climber waste from Everest Base Camp.
In May 2016, the results demonstrated that samples taken from Everest Base Camp at three different operating temperatures showed successful fecal decomposition and methane gas production from climber waste full of antibiotics. This critical lab result eliminates technical risk to the performance of the Mount Everest Biogas Project.
Future studies planned with Kathmandu University will investigate pathogen destruction in biogas reactors that are only fed climbers' waste.