Climate Activists have been advocating for sustainable energy sources for decades, and in the past few years, the movement to 'save the environment has gone mainstream. Most homeowners have few options to contribute to this endeavor other than creating alternate electricity sources like solar panels or wind-powered generators. One company is taking the challenge to a new level and raising the bar in the fight to replace non-renewable energy sources with innovation.

For decades, a big concern for environmentalists has been waste from personal consumption, such as kitchen waste. Cities tried 'wet-waste' composting programs, but for the most part, the landfills were the final resting place for the world's trash. There are some companies that have perfected the art of converting this waste into energy, and it is a noble solution, but an expensive and messy one. A new Israeli company is aiming to change that and bring the process 'in-house' literally,  and it just might change the way we see food waste forever.

Israeli startup “HomeBiogas” has developed a compact and affordable version of the industrial equipment usually operated by large companies and municipalities to turn food waste into gas. The company miniaturized a device known as an anaerobic digester, which turns organic waste into gas. The HomeBioGas device looks like an inflatable version of a small tent and costs less than $1000 making it affordable. Imagine turning the kitchen trash-bin into the gas that fuels the stove that cooks the food, it is the ideal solution that can practically become a staple in new home builds and help people save thousands on annual home-gas bills.

The device hooks directly into any countertop stove in the kitchen and is enough for two hours of cooking a day. A byproduct of the conversion of waste into cooking fuel is a rich fertilizer that can be used for outdoor gardening. “The enzymes eat your food waste and ‘pass gas’ as most organisms do. You’re effectively capturing the gas and using it to cook or heat water,” says Ron Gonen, a board member at HomeBiogas.

“Other companies have tried to develop small-scale anaerobic digesters, but none has been able to do it at the price point of HomeBiogas”, Gonen said. Based on the latest stats, over 15,000 units have been sold in 107 countries.  The product will likely be very useful for European countries that are slowly being disconnected from Russian gas. “Now everyone’s trying to figure out how to replace that gas. And generally, the default is, ‘we’re gonna have to build big coal or nuclear plants, or get natural gas from someplace else and refine it’”.

“...worked hard to promote our vision of a world without waste, investing long hours and resources on research and development, ... to make our waste-to-energy systems available worldwide”, said Oshik Efrati, CEO of HomeBiogashttps://t.co/fa8Ex7v13J pic.twitter.com/BVcE8OFucN

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“These are all mega facilities that take years to build and cost hundreds of millions of dollars. I think when people see the HomeBiogas system and recognize that they can start generating their own gas on-site and off of their own food and biological waste, I think it’ll be really popular.” HomeBiogas has launched its first industrial systems in the communal kitchen of Kibbutz Yagur, on the slopes of Mount Carmel in north-eastern Israel, as well as in a boarding school in Neurim, central Israel, where it is educating kids about sustainability. The company is also collaborating with a luxury hotel in Israel.

The system was recently used, during AMADEE-20, the most advanced simulation of a manned Mars mission ever, last October at the Ramon Crater in southern Israel. It is one of only a handful of places on Earth that is most like the conditions on Mars. During the three-week mission, the astronauts used HomeBiogas tech to manage their organic waste.