It started from the concerns about the community behavior of Ngemplak village, Selo, Boyolali who conducted illegal logging to supply their firewood need. This encouraged some students of UGM to provide solutions to tackle illegal logging by exploiting natural resources that have not been much exploited.
They are Wijaya (Industrial Engineering), Andika Rayendra (Mechanical Engineering), Satwika Matahari (Industrial Engineering) Siska Aditya (Department of Animal Science), and Atiq Muttaqin (Communication Department), initiating the manufacture of “Biogas Village “in Ngemplak village, Selo, Boyolali. The five students encouraged the local people to use cow manure that has not been widely used as a substitute fuel from wood to biogas.
Wijaya conveyed as head of the group, in Ngemplak Village, Boyolali there are many untapped cow waste. Cow manure is very potential to replace wood fuel by transforming it into biogas. "The biogas is expected to reduce the use of wood as fuel," said Wijaya, Monday (23/8) in Fortakgama Room UGM.
The community in the village of Ngemplak uses much firewood. Wijaya mentioned that one family each day spends around 15 kg firewoord for cooking purposes. "Encouraging people to make biogas from manure could reduce the use of fire wood, thereby reducing illegal logging," he explained.
The five students were doing assistance and mentoring for the Ngemplak community on biogas production, installation construction, application and marketing. Up to this time, 17 biogas installations have been formed in the village. "Up to this time there are already 17 families who have the biogas installations. They have been doing the processing of cow manure and transform it into biogas," Rayendra Andika added.
Rayendra mentioned the biogas making was done in stages. To begin with, the guidance was only performed on three families. "Initially, we did make some assistance for three families. After some success, we conveyed the output to the public and they also wanted to participate," he explained.
In the meantime, Siska Aditya said that the biogas production process is very easy. It only requires cow manure, water and a bit of prebiotic. The entire material is mixed in the digester (biogas installations). "Cow manure is mixed with water in 1:1 scale. Further, we add a little of prebiotic. Actually, this is easy to make and biogas does not cost much because it uses existing materials. The cost is only spent for the manufacture of biogas installations, each unit costs approximately IDR 600 thousand," she explained.
Biogas village under their guidance is not only able to reduce illegal logging in the region. The Biogas Vilage concept has made this group to win the gold medals in the National Student Scientific Week (PIMNAS) 2010 in Bali last July. The proposed work is entitled Biogas Village: Biogas Potential Optimization in Ngemplak village, Selo, Boyolali As Alternative to Prevent Illegal Logging in Merbabu Mountain Regions In Order to implement a Pilot Biogas Village in Central Java Province.
As planned, the biogas village as an energy independent village will be discussed in an international conference entitled Sustainable Community Service in Japan and Chalmers University, Sweden, in September and November. Previously, the biogas village has also been promoted in the country at the International Conference and Workshop on Role of Higher Education in Adapting to Climate Change event.