The Xuyong Household Biogas Project is supporting approximately 2,000 low-income farmer households in the Xuyong County (Sichuan Province, China) with the installation of efficient biogas digesters. These systems reduce methane emissions originating from the widely used pits to store animal manure and provide the households with clean biogas for cooking, heating and lighting.

Thanks to the reduction of methane emissions originating from the pits and of carbon dioxide emissions caused by the common use of coal and wood as cooking fuel, the 2,000 households within this project account for an annual GHG emission reduction of approximately 4,500 tCO₂e.

German based UPM Umwelt-Projekt-Management GmbH develops this project together with its long-term Chinese cooperation partner Chengdu Oasis Science & Technology Co., Ltd,

The project was registered under the Gold Standard in February 2012 and had its first carbon credit issuance in August 2013. Its annual credit volume is approximately 4,500 GS VERs.

Project impacts and benefits:

• Fuel switch towards climate friendly and renewable biogas puts an end to the farmer's dependency on expensive and dirty fossil fuels, leading to substantial expenditure savings.
• Superior quality organic fertilizer produced in the biogas digester tanks increases both crop yields and the quality of agricultural products.
• The practical biogas digesters and the highly efficient new cook stoves significantly reduce the time spent mostly by rural women collecting firewood or purchasing fossil fuel and firing up traditional stoves.
• The project's smoke-free biogas cook stoves strongly reduce indoor air pollution with CO, SO₂, PM₁₀ and NH₃ and avoid typical respiratory diseases, eye ailment etc. Especially for rural women and children, usually spending much of their time at home, these diseases still are a serious health issue.
• The proper storage and recycling of animal manure and organic domestic waste in closed digester tanks instead of open pits avoids bad odours, flies, infectious diseases, water pollution and the degradation of arable land.
• In addition, also considerable amounts of firewood are replaced by biogas which preserves biodiversity and valuable carbon sinks.
• Much better sanitary and hygienic conditions at the farm sites improve public health tremendously.
• There are substantial increases of available annual household income of up to 25% resulting from saved costs and time for supply with fossil fuels, higher crop yields and improved sanitation and health conditions.
• According to the local SREO, the Xuyong Household Biogas project contributes to creating dozens of permanent and temporary jobs related to distribution, installation and maintenance of biogas plants.

For more information about this project, please visit UPM>>>