Bio Gas plant for home using food waste

The price of energy is steadily rising. Best Buy Investment idea's are based on the theme of "Peak oil" 

I have been looking around for some energy security (for home) and bumped into ARTI (Appropriate Rural Technology Institute) 

What we are looking at is "Biogas plant" for home. here are some points to keep in mind.

- This is a Biogas plant but it does not require any "Cow-Dung" "Manure"

- What is fed into the "Biogas Plant" is starchy food waste.(kitchen waste)

- This is a small unit 1000-1500 liters plastic tanks are used to build the unit.

- Cost for complete setup as mentioned is around Rs 15,000/= (but consider inflation.. as I see different price tags)

- Input is food waste.

Storyline:  Biogas plant does not require "Cow dung" The bacteria that generate "Methane" reside in the stomach of "Cows" and are available in the cow dung hence cow dung is used in biogas plants. 

So if you have added the bacteria into the biogas plant you can feed organic matter (just like you feed cow fodder) and you will get "Methane" 

If Organic matter is starchy then its great (That would be potato peel, rice, wheat, bread) 

Methane has a calorific value of 11,000Kcal/Kg If you want high output of methane then input should also have high calorific value. Cow-dung has low calorific value as it is the excreta and hence we need 40kg of cow-dung which requires 40 days to decompose making biogas plants large and unmanageable.

If you put 1 kg of starch you can generate the same amount of Methane (as 40kg cow-dung) in 24 hours making the Biogas plant compact and manageable. (that is the underlying principle)

Story in picture..

Story in Video

There are issues with Hydrogen Sulphide in Methane as its harmful for humans.
Link to ARTI related info:
http://www.arti-india.org
http://www.samuchit.com/images/stories/products/std_designs.pdf (Price list)
http://www.samuchit.com/
http://www.indiatogether.org/2006/jul/env-karve.htm

I did find another company http://biotech-india.org  providing bio-gas plants and they do have more info like the BioScrubber technology to remove Hydrogen Sulphide.

By the way Gujarat Ambuja Export which uses Maize Starch "Big time" has "Bio-Gas Plants and has installed "Bio-Scrubbers"

Conclusion: Soon we will see energy price deregulation which also includes things like Zero subsidy on LPG cylinders (which means LPG cylinders will cost somewhere close to Rs700 per cylinder) considering the added advantage of organic manure for the gardens.. I think we have a winner in a "bio-gas" plant for home. 
just keep in mind the "Hydrogen Sulphide" issue