First biogas plant (Matunga leper colony)
Primera planta de biogás (leprosería de Matunga)
- Date
- 1897 (discutido) · confidence low
- Place
- Matunga, Bombay (Mumbai), Maharashtra, India
- Credited to
- British colonial administration (Bombay)
- Field
- Matter & energy
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
An anaerobic digester of waste at a Bombay leper colony that produced fuel gas for lighting. It is considered one of the earliest institutional uses of methane from biomass.
The 1859 date repeated by Wikipedia and manuals comes from a single secondary source; Exeter (UK) put digester gas into street lighting around 1895.
What it led to
- Exeter digesters (1895) lighting streets
- sewage-gas biogas plants
- household biogas in Asia