Fiona Kelleher and her kids stood looking out the window, watching Fiona’s husband as he worked on something that looked a bit nuts. ‘He had
Kieran, a longtime mechanical engineer, had just invented Ireland’s first micro-scale anaerobic biodigester.
What does one even do with a micro-scale anaerobic biodigester?
Well, this particular anaerobic biodigester takes care of nearly 100% of your food waste.
You feed in all your scraps and waste – even hard-to-compost foods like cooked meats, dairy, cakes and liquids go in. Then the anaerobic bacteria get to work breaking down the waste.
After that, out come two very different ready-to-use products: a biogas for cooking and a nutrient-rich liquid fertiliser for gardening.
Food waste goes in. Gas and fertiliser come out.
‘We were never really into gardening or growing food. That was the biggest thing to change with the digester,’ Kieran says.
‘During lockdown, we set up the polytunnel and started using the fertiliser from the egg to grow tomatoes and courgettes. Because not only have you got a way to get rid of your food waste, you’ve also got a way to grow more food. And the taste was extraordinary. We had loads of tomatoes so we gave them to friends. They couldn’t get over how tasty they were compared to what they were buying from shops.’
Fiona and Kieran have only seen positives come out of using the egg. They love cooking with the biogas they produce themselves, and having no bill for fertiliser.