Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Lighting Up Rural Palestine With Household Waste

Palestinian villagers living in desolate, off-grid areas in the West Bank have begun using Israeli-made biogas generators that supply free, clean energy by gobbling up organic waste.

The portable, household “anaerobic digesters” made by Israeli start-up company HomeBioGas turn food leftovers and manure into methane for cooking and lighting.

They can be taken along if people living in ramshackle huts or tent dwellers, such as local Bedouin, decide to relocate or move home.

“HomeBioGas has invented this simple digester that can easily be assembled and transported,” said Palestinian engineer Amer Rabayah, who coordinates installation of the devices.

Rural West Bank areas that Palestinians want as part of a future state with the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem have been left under-developed, while Israel, which captured the territory in a 1967 Middle East war, has invested in adjacent settlements.

Palestinians – largely left to fend for themselves – have relied on donations from foreign states and international aid agencies.

“(In) this area … there is no water or electricity. We have no services,” said local resident and digester owner Nayef Zayid.

Around 40 digesters have been set up in a pilot project at the Palestinian village of al-Awja in the central West Bank’s Jordan Valley.

The European Union has funded the project to the tune of some 500,000 euros ($559,750), and the Peres Center for Peace, set up by former Israeli president Shimon Peres, facilitated Israeli-Palestinian cooperation.

A group of Israeli and Palestinian volunteers helped assemble the digesters, which take about three hours to install.

Some digesters have also been provided to Bedouin in Israel in partnership with the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, based in the arid Negev desert.

HEALTHY OPTION

Oshik Efrati, chief executive officer of HomeBioGas, said he hoped the product would save many lives in rural areas across the world where smoke from cooking on an open fire causes severe respiratory illness and death.

Up to 2.7 billion people live in under-served communities with no access to clean energy and waste disposal services, HomeBioGas says, while 4.3 million women and children die each year due to inhaling smoke from indoor open fires.

The company aims to expand its production capacity and enlist governments and aid agencies to buy digesters for impoverished communities, but plans are still in their infancy, Efrati said.

“This system will be available to everyone that needs it in the developing world. It will eliminate waste, it makes clean gas, and there is no need to breathe in any smoke,” he said.

A fermentation process to produce the gas is precipitated when bacteria is added in powder or liquid form to a mix of water and waste. The bacteria then multiply to create a self-perpetuating process.

Rich liquid fertilizer, a byproduct of the process, can also be used to boost crop growth for a population that largely relies on agriculture for income, Efrati explained.

HomeBioGas declined to discuss a retail price for the digester, whose materials and construction costs amount to a few hundred dollars. It is best suited for use in warm climates.

The company also sees affluent, environmentally aware Western consumers as future clients for its product, which will be sold to them for profit, marketing director Ami Amir said.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.