Top: Students put food scraps from the cafeteria into the small-scale anaerobic digester on the school campus.

The educational kit includes a burner that utilizes the biogas produced by the digester. Photos courtesy of HomeBiogas

In 200 schools in Brazil, Israel, Fiji and additional countries around the world, students are learning about — and experiencing — anaerobic digestion (AD) of food waste. HomeBiogas, an Israel-based company that sells small-scale AD systems for homes, refugee camps, institutions and businesses, offers an educational kit that includes a curriculum, a HomeBiogas system with its biogas stove, a protective structure for the system, and a cabinet where educators can lock the stove when not in use for educational purposes. The kits placed in schools and educational centers demonstrate how food waste is fed to the system and within hours it creates biogas which is used for cooking or heating, on-site. Students put food scraps from the cafeteria into the system and the biofertilizer (liquid digestate) is used on the school trees. The curriculum covers climate change, methane, landfills, renewable energy, biogas, organic waste, global warming, circular economy, biofertilizer and more.

In Israel, the kit has been approved by the Education Ministry and is being used schools across the country. HomeBiogas will launch the educational kit in the U.S. by the end of 2022.