Envisaj Mercy — the Mercy College Environmental Sustainability and Justice League — builds its first Hestia Home Biogas system in the Dominican Republic
January 7, 2015
“La Bomba de Cenovi”: The Dominican Republic’s first Hestia Home Biodigester at the home of Tesori Alvarez in San Francisco de Macoris.
This first for Solar CITIES was the idea of Martha Perez from our Mercy College Environmental Sustainability and Justice League. Martha is a Dominican native and her friend Tesori welcomed us to her home and put us up and provided the materials and hired expert mason and construction engineer Julio and his son to help us create a home biodigester in the Hestia style with help from inventor/designer Warren Weisman. Martha and fellow student William Gallicano brought down the 4 millimeter EPDM pond liner from New York, which William purchased and donated to the initiative.
A year after our Envisaj Mercy team went on the “mother of all biogas tours”, a faculty-led service learning expedition to Israel and Palestine, visiting Eco-gas Isreal and the Palestinian Wildlife Society and introduced our Solar CITIES IBC/ARTI hybrid biodigester to the Green Apprenticeship Program in Kibbutz Lotan, we found ourselves on a “student-led” service learning expedition in the Dominican Republic where several of our Envisaj Mercy club members have family. In San Francisco de Macoris we built our first Hestia Home Biogas system from cinder block and EPDM pond liner.
