by Lynda Chambers, editor, InRoads

Sometimes one great idea leads to another and then another and, on lucky occasions, the result is an idea greater than all the ones that came before it. This is what happened to Cory Richards and Geoff Hill, co-founders of the Green Everest Alliance . Their idea was to see if used cooking oil – collected from the kitchens of local lodges leading up to Everest Base Camp – could be used to run a small diesel generator there.

While investigating how this might work, particularly at such a high elevation, they came across another idea and then another idea and, needless to say, their project isn’t just about used cooking oil anymore.

“As they did their research, they realized that more urgent than the need for energy at Everest Base Camp was the need to do something about human waste disposal,” says RRU associate faculty member Ed Beggs.

AN "ECO-CONSCIOUS" LIFE   RRU associate faculty member Ed Beggs lives in a reclaimed log home next to a small lake in B.C. In case that sounds too idyllic, though, keep in mind he “did a lot of the grunt work” to create this quintessential Canadian setting. “Starting in 2004, I dismantled and moved a log home from Kelowna to Salmon Arm,” he says. “With considerable help from some local trades, and my 'retired' father, a former general contractor like myself, the house was rebuilt on a small seven-lot 'eco-conscious' strata.” The home is partially heated by passive solar energy in the form of a large south-facing window, supplemented by a wood stove and electric baseboard heat as needed. Future plans are to add a micro-cogeneration system which will be 80-90 per cent efficient and operate on used cooking oil.   Beggs runs his van, of course, on used cooking oil from local restaurants and recycles most everything. With a connection to the internet via satellite, he is linked to the rest of the world and teaches a course called "Leadership and Management for Environmental Practitioners” for RRU’s Centre for Applied Leadership and Management. “I also teach a similar course for the B.Sc. in Environmental Management program,” says Beggs. “It’s on-campus every two years, in the spring, which is a nice time to leave Salmon Arm and head to Victoria after a long winter.”

Beggs, a graduate of the MSc in Environment and Management program at RRU, is an executive member of the Green Everest Alliance - invited by Hill to serve as technical director-at-large.

The two first met several years ago when Hill was getting a biodiesel project off the ground at UBC campus and contacted PlantDrive to price a reactor tank.

PlantDrive was founded by Beggs in 1999 as a direct offshoot of his RRU thesis. The company, based in Salmon Arm, B.C., markets components needed to convert conventional diesel engines to biofuel.

Bringing Beggs on board to provide insights from a sustainable systems perspective has proven to be another in the series of great ideas.

Once it became apparent to the Green Everest Alliance co-founders that there was an urgent need to do something about the lack of proper human waste disposal at Everest Base Camp, they decided to look at other inventive technologies – specifically biogas digesters.

This explains, in part, their newest idea - to design a system for Everest Base Camp that will not only reduce human waste but, while doing so, create useable energy, permit the growing of plants and provide clean hot water for showers and washing!

Systems such as this are described, aptly, as "integrated" and were pioneered in the 1980s by John Todd, an internationally-recognized biologist and visionary leader in the field of ecological design.

While this new idea may sound much more complicated than the cooking oil initiative, it's actually not. Each component of the integrated system has been tried, tested and proven in various locations under different conditions.

“There are already more than 200,000 anaerobic digesters in Nepal”, says Hill. “But they are all in the lowlands and what we are hoping is that our design will combat the challenges of a higher elevation.”

To keep the digester warm enough to work properly, for example, the researchers have determined that a greenhouse will be needed. And if there’s going to be a greenhouse, it makes sense to make a system of it and grow food at the same time.

“All well and good but then I got to wondering if the original idea of the diesel generator powered with cooking oil and the new idea of the biogas digester could be put together to good effect,” says Beggs. “Waste heat from the generator could be used to help heat both the biogas digester and the greenhouse, extending the growing season.”

There’s more. The CO2 emissions from the generator could also be used to "fertilize" the plants. Beggs says a number of UBC engineering students are now working on the specifics of this digester/greenhouse design and his role is to do specific research that comes out of that, on an as-needed basis.

The challenges inherent in this imaginative Green Everest Alliance project, according to Hill, are not technical  Lab scale and test scale anaerobic digesters, composters and dehydrators are already in various stages of construction at UBC and testing is scheduled to take place in 2010 and 2011.

WHAT IS AN ANAEROBIC DIGESTER? Lab scale anaerobic digesters (like the one pictured above), composters and dehydrators are already in various stages of planning and construction at the University of British Columbia. Testing is scheduled for 2010 and 2011. _______________  Anaerobic digestion technology has been utilized for energy since the mid-1800s. However, the improved technology and abundance of feedstocks, the ability to effectively and environmentally process waste streams, and the significant potential for electricity generation have brought this process to the forefront as a promising “new” renewable energy source. Anaerobic digestion converts organic matter into methane in the absence of oxygen. When harnessed through an efficient system, anaerobic digestion can successfully convert feedstocks (such as manure) into both a nutrient-rich slurry and a biogas that is roughly 65% methane. From Natural Resources Canada.

The challenges, rather, relate to relationship-building and cultural appropriateness in a region where the team is faced as well with a language barrier. Key to the success of the project, then, are mutually beneficial relationships amongst individuals, organizations, governing bodies, and sponsors.

With regard to the latter, the Alliance is making components of its technology system available for sponsorship. These components include those related to camp such as living expenses and tents; those related to communications such as computers and printers; and those related to solar energy and biogas.

“All sponsorship packages can be split or combined depending on desired levels of involvement,” says Hill, noting that details are available on the Green Everest Alliance website.

While actual implementation of the Green Everest Alliance project will only come after successes have been proven and financial, pragmatic, and logistical constraints have been removed, Richards, Hill and Beggs are not sitting idly by.

“It may be years down the road before we’ll actually have the opportunity to demonstrate our idealized integrated system,” says Hill. “So - in the interim, we expect to take a step-wise approach to addressing the critical human waste issues at Everest Base Camp and in the region.”

This could mean, he says, exploring waste treatment options such as composting, dehydrating and incinerating toilets. The good news is that all these alternate waste treatment methods have end products of value to local farmers.

Ed Beggs can be reached at 250-833-0275 or by emailing rebeggs@xplornet.com. Geoff Hill, who is developing the Green Everest Alliance project as part of his PhD in geography is at 604-505-3656 or geoffbhill@gmail.com.