(China5e, Aug 3, 2006) Rwanda is planning to use a unique resource - vast amounts of methane trapped in a layer of water deep in Lake Kivu - to double its current power output and drastically cut harmful emissions.
In a pilot project this month a specially commissioned barge will be floated out into the lake on the border with Democratic Republic of Congo. A pipe will be lowered to 300 metres (985ft) where, as a result of volcanic and bacterial activity, the water contains an estimated 55bn cubic metres of methane. In a simple process - a Belgian-made plant has extracted small amounts of methane from the lake for 40 years - the gas will be sucked out and piped back to shore.
The pilot is the first phase of a £48m partnership between Rwanda's government and Dane Associates, a UK-registered consortium that will build a power plant near the lake to turn the methane into electricity.
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