Engineers' group pushes biogas technology

CEBU, Philippines – The Philippine Society of Mechanical Engineers in Mandaue City has urged local officials in Metro Cebu to adopt biogas technology in addressing the problem of garbage.

The PSME-Mandaue City Chapter headed by its president Pedro Ronulf  Diongzon  is now working with Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes to implement biogas technology at the 6.5-hectare relocation site in Barangay Paknaan.

Mandaue City government and PSME-Mandaue signed a memorandum of agreement for the implementation of the project.

PSME-Mandaue has been tasked to conduct the design of the project while the city government will look for available funds to finance the project.

While PSME-Mandaue is working for the project implementation, they have also urged local officials in Metro Cebu to adopt the same project.

Their project is called Biogas Technology, the Solid Concrete Fermentation Digested Chamber.

Biogas, which is mainly methane, is a gas produced from the digestion of organic materials in an oxygen-free environment or anaerobic fermentation.

PSME officials said that proper disposal of organic household waste, especially from backyard piggeries and poultries, is usually done in open-dug pits which are messy, odorous and often breeding grounds for mosquitoes, flies, rats and pathogenic bacteria.

This system of waste disposal threatens the ground water through the infiltration of pollutants.

This scenario creates health hazards as well as potentials of conflict with neighbors, PSME officials said.

Having a biogas digester, Diongzon said, can help solve this issue.

Senica Engineering & Construction represented by Engr. Fableo Senica Jr., a contractor based in Carmen town, is the one who designed the biogas technology.

At present, Senica Engineering & Construction already constructed a biogas plant in Mindanao and is also working on another plant in Leyte.