Web story of the policy paper | June 2026

What biogas needs after installation

From Installation to Sustained Value · Read the policy paper

After installation, biogas plants need routine use, repairs, safety checks and a buyer for digestate. Finance should verify continued operation before funding expansion.

Published source 56,500+ Biogas plants financed by IDCOL by Dec 2020
A woman cooking on a biogas stove in Bangladesh, photographed for Heifer International
Household biogas in Bangladesh · Heifer International
Documentary context · Not project evidence
What has to hold

Keep the plant useful

Field Record before expansion
What we learned

The record must follow the unit

Asset file
Household, GPS, installer, commissioning, safety and consent.
Use record
Gas use, fuel stacking, feedstock routine and household value.
Repair log
Fault, response, parts, downtime, repair cost and closure.
Payment trail
Digestate quantity, quality, buyer, invoice and payment.

Choose workable service areas

Choose places with feedstock, water, technicians and buyers.

Treat each product separately

Wet slurry, compost, vermicompost, granules and Bio-CNG need different rules.

Resolve approvals before investment

Map fertiliser, gas, safety and emissions requirements before capital moves.

Man standing beside a green household biodigester in Bogra District
Bogra District, Bangladesh Household biodigester and kitchen.
Field evidence

Track plant use and repair

Function

Check the plant at 6, 12 and 24 months.

Service

Record tickets, response time, parts and downtime.

Value

Track fuel savings, slurry use, sales and payments.

Woman standing beside a green household biodigester
Bogra District, Bangladesh Household installation.
Man standing beside a green household biodigester
Rajshahi Division, Bangladesh Follow-up visit.
Illustrative digestate processing and bagging scene
Illustrative image Digestate processing. Not project evidence.
Market anchor

Digestate needs a buyer

FSMV shows the field lesson: organise producers, quality support and buyers together.

FSMV vermicompost entrepreneur with packaged organic fertiliser
FSMV | Project-reported

Find the buyer first

Promise income only after standards, buyer commitments and payment records exist.

"Now we can sell it easily and earn cash in hand."
Project-reported 11 + 11 Women producers linked across two FSMV clusters
Project-reported ~20 Additional women reportedly started independently
Project-reported 3.75x Reported entrepreneur monthly sales growth
What should happen next

Check existing plants before expansion

Before new funding, check what works, why plants stopped and what a viable cluster costs.

Map every unit

  • List every unit with household, location and installer.
  • Mark it as working, damaged, idle or missing.

Diagnose failures

  • Check feedstock, water, user effort and repair history.
  • Separate bad siting from fixable service gaps.

Verify the digestate market

  • Measure what is used, collected or sold.
  • Record the buyer, price, quality and payment.

Decide what happens next

  • Expand only where use and service hold up.
  • Repair, redesign or stop where they do not.
Evidence note

Four records still missing

Priority data still missing
  1. Reconciled asset register with GPS, household, installer, commissioning and status fields.
  2. Current functionality and stove-use checks across 6, 12 and 24 months.
  3. Repair cost, service response and digestate payment records.
  4. Written regulatory path for fertiliser, gas, safety and emissions authorisation.
Supporting sources

Sources combine public material and project-supplied records. Project figures are reported, not independently verified impact.

Cultivera reading

Count the plants still running

Discuss a field review