The Urban Biogas Project (formerly Rot2Roti)

                                                  Alex Schmidt                                                 

                India is a different place.  Example:  It was my 2^nd day in New Delhi, and I was on my way to my first meeting with a biogas expert.  We spend a few minutes negotiating a price with the local auto-rickshaw driver (which can be much more difficult than it sounds) and then we jump in.  This puts our very lives at the hand of the driver as we navigate the traffic of a developing country, where traffic laws are more like suggestions.  I enjoy it. My teammate Zach say’s, “A rickshaw ride is like an hour long rollercoaster ride”. Our driver stops (at what is obviously not our destination) and begins to chat with a local.  I came to learn that he was actually asking for directions!  It turns out we had been traveling in the opposite direction and arrived 45 min late to our meeting, but we have already been learning that India runs on a different time.  45 min late is nothing, we are escorted to an office and given tea and biscuits, and wait another 45 until the biogas expert arrives and we begin our meeting.

                After a week in Delhi (and a month for my 2 US teammates Zach and Mark), three teammates and I (pictured below), travel down to Bangalore for the ACARA Summer Institute.  After being on the ground here, we realized our business needed to pivot in a new direction. The Summer Institute was the perfect place to step back and look at our model with fresh eyes, and be challenged by Julian, Fred and Brian.  After decisions were made, Harmeet and I headed back to New Delhi to complete the work need before I return.

                Like we had hoped, even though biogas has been around for decades in India, there are still new initiatives and opportunity.  For example, I just read an article on a huge project in New Delhi to use biogas technology to convert sewage to compressed gas to power part of the massive public bus system.  Click here to read it.  As for our project, we are making the necessary connections to build a plant including APMC (governing body of the market), Teri TEAM process, S&S Biofuel Consultants, and others.

                Personally, I would not say it has been easy.  There were many challenges I had to overcome here.  But in spite of it, I have seen opportunity in industry and hope in the people to overcome the challenges of this developing nation.  I am very grateful for the opportunity to be in India.  Thank you to ACARA, everyone involved in the ACARA Challenge, and our outside funder for believing in us.

               

Our team at a flower and produce market where waste was composted to organic fertilizer: Alex, Nitya, Zach, Harmeet (From left to right). Flower waste smells a lot better than produce waste!

Organic waste at Azadpur market being transported to the landfill.