Category: Updates

It’s Official! MEBP is an official 501(c)(3) Non-Profit!

Our team was officially recognized as a 501(c)(3) entity at the end of December 2016!  We can now move forward with our design and work with the Everest communities.

Special thanks for all our volunteer’s help over the past 6 years, and especially for Kirk Robinson’s help in helping Perkins Coie to represent us.

More updates to come soon!

Mt Everest Biogas Project Progress since our inception in 2010

The progress made by the Mt Everest Biogas Project since our inception in 2010 is shown in the timeline below.  We present the organizational and planning progress made in this international collaborative effort, as well as the technical progress of our ongoing design.  It will take a lot to build and operate a workable solution to this difficult problem.  But the MEBP continues to consult and collaborate with the community of Nepal and its governmental organizations as we move together toward the most sustainable, robust and simple to manage solution possible.  The steps on our path shown below will serve as proof of concept for the social and technical feasibility of this project.  Thanks you for your interest and support of our work.  We will continue to update as this effort moves forward.

  • 2010 – Verbal commitment of Mingma Sherpa (Climbing and Trekking Guide), Dan Mazur (Climbing and Trekking Guide) and Garry Porter (Mountain Climber and Civil Engineer) to find a sustainable solution for human waste on Mt. Everest.
  •  2010 –Design requirements developed
  • May 2013- Five different design solutions were developed using only, or a combination of: PV panels, solar heaters, immersion resistance heaters, electric water heaters, water storage devices, and radiant heating with pumped hot water.  The pros and cons of each system were presented to an outside technical panel of experts with a recommendation to proceed with the best design. This first Feasibility Design relied on radiant heating to maintain the biogas digester’s temperature.  To avoid confusion, we have left this initial design off our website, as it has been eclipsed by our more recent design that does not use radiant heating.
  • June 2013-July 2013- Seattle team member Nate Janega visits Nepal to present the feasibility study to Nepalese NGOs of importance, namely Biogas Sector Partnership and Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee. During this visit, Nate looked for a suitable site at Gorak Shep, investigated local infrastructure & building styles in the Khumbu valley and researched available building materials and transport in Kathmandu and the mountains. Link to Nate’s Blog
  • August 2013- Seattle engineering team develops its first budget and scope of supply. Although this work became outdated by new design changes, it was an important step in understanding the magnitude of this project.
  • August 2013- Constructive feed-back from BSP and critical design information shared during Nate’s meetings in Kathmandu lead the Seattle engineering team into a new stage of re-design.
  • August 2014- The new design using resistance heaters in the biogas digesters is finished and documented in the Basis Of Design Document. For the most up to date version of this document please see: LINK
  • 2015?- Years of work and dialogue with lead to a Letter of Intent with the Khumbalia Buffer Zone Committee. This formal promotion of the MEBP is critical for the priveledge to construct anything within the boundaries of the Mt Everest National Park.  The Mt Everest Biogas Project looks forward to working with this local Sherpa organization based in the mountain town of Khumjung to finalize this undertaking.  With the Buffer Zone Committee’s help we hope to find a sustainable solution that is in accord with the wishes and cultural concerns of the local people.
  • June 2015?- Mike Marsolek of the Seattle engineering team visits Kathmandu University to set up bench scale biogas reactors with samples of Everest climbers’ waste at Kathmandu University. This project is critical to determining if antibiotics present in the climbers’ waste will inhibit or prevent biological formation of methane and destruction of pathogens.  Although this toxicity question will be answered in months, graduate students at Kathmandu University will be completing all of this research project over the next 2 years.  This lab work deepens the collaboration between the Seattle team and the people of Nepal and will help develop a network of technical support for the project once implemented

 

Basis of Design document

This project faces the obstacles of a rugged and remote location, only fully occupied seasonally, the language barriers and cultural understanding of the team members involved and even proving the basic feasibility of such a difficult task.  There are not only extreme technical requirements that must be consistently met in a wide range of conditions.  There is a complex web of social networking and thoughtful planning that must be navigated as well.  In the five years that volunteers have worked on this project we have attained design benchmarks as well as progress in our on-going discussion with the local community and organizations governing the Mt. Everest National Park.

 

A considerable amount of research and design has evolved throughout the course of this project, and not all preliminary work is documented on this website.  For a more pointed view of this project’s technical process, the current design concept and its technical details are presented in the

Basis of Design April 23 2015 FINAL

March 2014 Update

Design Progress March 2014

At the start of the biogas digester design process, the design team laid out 7 technical objectives to accomplish.  These are itemized below.  Over the last 3 years, significant progress has been made on meeting the first 5 technical objectives.  In summary, the technical team has demonstrated that the biogas digester will function at Gorak Shep, the heat loss of the digester is known and there are available subsystems that meet the Gorak Shep requirements. The design team is refining the preliminary design that was briefed in Nepal in 2013 based on the inputs from this site survey. Major design efforts in 2014 are focused on the implementation of the biogas system and long term sustainability of the system at Gorak Shep.

TECHNICAL OBJECTIVES

The technical objectives  were to technically answer the following questions:

  • 1)  Will an anaerobic biogas digester function at the low temperatures at Gorak Shep and using human waste as feed stock?
  • 2)  What factors influence the performance of the biogas digester?
  • 3)  What are the Gorak Shep design requirements?
  • 4)  What is the heat loss of the digester under various external temperatures, desired internal temperatures of the digester and different R-value insulation of the system?
  • 5)  What are potential design solutions to negate the heat loss and meet the system requirements for a digester at Gorak Shep?
  • 6)  How to implement the approved design?
  • 7)  How to provide long-term sustainability?

DIGESTER MODELING

Since there are many variables that determine the quantity of gas that can be produced, a computer model has been developed that,  based on the quantity of human waste input, water input, and digester size, quantifies the amount of methane gas produced as a function of internal digester temperature and retention time.  The results from the model  validate the technical feasibility of the project, but also allows trade offs of the input parameters to optimize performance and identify the critical factors in the successful operation of the digester in low temperatures.

More details about digester performance and temperature:

MASS-ENERGY BALANCE

A mass-energy model for the biogas system has been developed including fuel preparation, digester, “green house” and effluent. Results show that the system is not sustainable without supplemental heat (green house and/or solar panels or other).

GORAK SHEP DESIGN REQUIREMENTS

  • The system will maximize the use of locally available building materials and labor.
  • The biogas system must be designed with off the shelf technology systems, easily maintained and sustainable.
  • The system must be able to function during extended periods of no or limited solar energy.
  • An average of 12,000 kg (13.2 tons) of human waste is generated at the climbers’ base camps at Everest, Nuptse, Lhotse and Pumori. This amount is divided between two climbing seasons: one in the spring and one in the fall. The spring season accounts for about 75% of the annual total waste.
  • The slurry temperature needs to be maintained near 30°C for optimum methane production.
  • The human waste from the base camps will need to be mixed with water to bring the waste concentration (percent of the effluent that’s solid) down to 8%.
  • Pathogens remaining in the effluent from the digester must be safe to use as fertilizer.

POTENTIAL DESIGN SOLUTIONS

   5 different design solutions were considered which used combinations of PV panels, solar heaters, immersion resistance heaters, electric water heaters, water storage devices, and pump driven heat transfer loops.  The pros and cons of each system were presented to an outside technical panel of experts with a recommendation to proceed with a design (Preliminary Design 05/2013) that features:

  • Heavy insulated (R-50) digester
  • Heavy insulated (R-50) greenhouse with window for passive heat
  • Insulated water tank heated by PV solar panels
  • DC hot water pump to move heated water thru coils in the digester floor
  • Simple drain field to dispose of effluent.

GORAK SHEP SITE SURVEY/CONCLUSIONS

   A senior design engineer from the Mt. Everest Biogas team spent a month in Nepal and met with the tea house owners and porters at Gorak Shep; officials of Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC); Mt. Everest Foundation for Sustainable Development (MEFSD) and Biogas Support Program (BSP)-Nepal.

CONCLUSIONS FROM THE SITE SURVEY

  • The teahouse owners and waste porters all support this project
  •    Water is available and drainage conditions are excellent for disposing of the effluent.
  •    The proposed site meets with the teahouse owners approval  and:
  •  The sandy soil will help insulate the digester
  •   Risk of accidents by humans, animals or rocks is low
  •  Solar exposure is very good

The full presentation can be downloaded here:Presentation for BSP

TECHNICAL TASKS TO GO

  • Refine preliminary design based on Gorak Shep site survey.
  • Continue performance modeling of the digester and passive solar building.
  • Acquire cost and schedule data on system components.
  • Design a water collection system at Gorak Shep.
  • Perform a risk assessment of the design/operation.
  • Develop long term sustainability training and operations documents.

October 2013 Update

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Our program has completed the following tasks:

  1. Water and soil quality sampling and testing at Gorak Shep.
  2. Biogas digester model (Harris, U of Adelaide) is being used to assess performance.
  3. Extensive heat modeling.
  4. Formal proposal to BSP-Nepal for constructing digester at Gorak Shep.
  5. Site survey at Gorak Shep.
  6. Preliminary biogas system design completed.
  7. Cost estimate based on the site survey results.

We have established formal affiliations with:

  1. Puget Sound Professional Chapter of Engineers without Borders. (EWB)
  2. Biogas Sector Program of Nepal (BSP-Nepal)
  3. Mt Everest foundation for Sustainable Development (MEFSD)
  4. Saving Mt Everest 2011-2012
  5. Seattle Architects without Borders

Program Tasks to Complete:

  1. Submit  formal application to Engineers Without Borders for recognition as an EWB Service Corp Program.
  2. Formalize “requirements and sustainability” document with residents of Gorak Shep.
  3. Formalize working document/contract with Biogas Sector Program-Nepal.
  4. Perform additional water testing at Gorak Shep to correlate the contaminated water with the source of contamination .
  5. Perform ground temperature measurements for 9 month period of performance.

Project Begins!

We are proud to announce that the Mount Everest Biogas Project has been officially launched!

Our project builds on the success of many other biogas projects in Nepal, and adds the challenges and specific requirements for an installation at 17,000ft (5000meters) elevation and that utilizes only human waste.

We have been approved by the Engineers Without Borders – Puget Sound Professional Chapter. You can find volunteer opportunities and the project description on their website.