beritasatu.com, Pasuruan – As many as four villages in Pasuruan Regency, East Java have utilized biogas produced by cow manures as a replacement to LPG and firewood to fulfill their daily needs.

“As many as 1,350 biogas reactors have been recorded which are scattered throughout the 12 villages at Tutur Sub-District. Those figures represent the accommodation of 1,450 Households,” said Hariyanto, the Person in Charge for Biogas Development in Pasuruan Regency, Pasuruan on Friday (20/3).

He added, that as many as 1,350 units of biogas reactors are present in various sizes ranging from eight to ten cubic meters, meanwhile each Household or a maximum of two Households within the same house utilizes biogas produced by a minimum of manures produced by three cattles.

“The costs for installing an eight cubic meter capacity biogas reactor is Rp 8 millons, including the construction of biogas installation which occupies a minimum of 3 x 5 meter land for the site installation of biogas in the form of Paralon pvc pipe,” he uttered.

Majority of biogas user society, he continued, is dairy farmers hence biogas reactor construction repayment which is considered costly may be resolved through deposits of fresh milk on a monthly basis for a five years period to the nearest cooperative.

“Based on my observation a cow may produce between 20 to 30 kilograms of cow manures on a daily basis. Unless these manures are properly utilized then they will be useless and even contribute to air pollution through their unpleasant odor to the surrounding community,” he said.

According to him, the benefits of biogas other than to save on monthly expenditures on LPG or kerosene, in terms of their supplies it is also more secured up to the next 30 years.

Meanwhile, a biogas user among the community at Gendro Village, Tutur Subdistrict, Munawaroh said that saving from biogas utilization may reach between Rp 350,000 to Rp 400,000 per month.

“It used to be that we used up between four to five 3-kg capacity LPGs with a unit price of Rp 18,500. Now we are starting to save some money from LPG purchases,” she said.

The reason of biogas reactor installation, she continued, is because of significant amount of cow manures at the beginning and the difficulties to find the solution to dispose such waste products in which we have dumped the litters to the community rice fields.

“We normally disposed the litters to the ricefields during the rain, but then we started to realize that these actions may potentially harm people going to their rice fields due to slippery cow manures. We finally built the biogas reactor installation where the sludge have been turned into fertilzers,” she said. (FIR/Antara)