Welcome to the Biogas Education Hub

The course only runs twice per year. Don't miss out!

Enrollment for the 6th cohort opens on December 2 and live office hours start on January 8, 2025.

 SIGN UP HERE to receive alerts about the early bird specials, learn how this program is making a global impact, and find out when a French/Haitian-Creole speaking cohort will start.

Join a growing, worldwide network

We are people who are generating our own free energy out of trash, while also helping our climate.  We are doing this at home, in our community centers, on our homesteads, in rural areas and in cities. 

Basically, everywhere!

Who this is for

The "Succeed with Small Scale Biogas" program is your gateway to learning how to design, build, and maintain your own biogas system. It’s packed with easy-to-follow lessons, live coaching, and a fun, hands-on approach that will guide you every step of the way. Best of all?  Anyone can take this course! Whether you're a beginner or just looking to expand your knowledge, this program is for you. 🌱

If you get all fired up about biogas and want to teach my innovative curriculum in your community in a way that is engaging and relevant to your culture and context, The "Biogas Educator Certificate Program" is for you.  You will learn my proven participatory design and teaching approach and receive a license to use my "done for you" curriculum, so you can get right to teaching. 

Other courses that deepen your knowledge and application of biogas will also be coming online.

People who enroll in courses become members of the Biogas Education Hub.

Your Host:  Kathy Puffer

I’m passionate about making biogas simple, accessible, and practical for everyone. At my homestead, I use biogas for cooking and growing food sustainably. The system provides clean cooking fuel and rich fertilizer, which I use as a compost accelerator to enrich the soil for our orchard and gardens. This closed-loop system is designed around permaculture principles, creating regenerative and resilient solutions that benefit both the land and the community.

As an educator, I focus on making biogas hands-on and relevant to your needs. I believe in participatory design—working with communities to create biogas systems that fit their context and last long-term. My goal is to help you implement practical, local solutions that benefit both your household and the planet.

I also offer consulting and presentations on biogas, permaculture, and sustainable design. Let’s work together to create systems that serve you and the Earth.  Learn more about me at kathypuffer.com. 

Know that you are enrolling in a high-quality program!  

Kathy has been recognized at the World Biogas Summit for bringing small-scale-biogas solutions to communities and women around the world.  At the annual awards gala in Birmingham, UK, on March 29, 2023, Kathy received the Women in Biogas award, and this Biogas Education Hub was highly commended with second place in the Educational Campaign of the Year category. 

The "Succeed with Small-Scale Biogas" Program

Are you ready to dive into the world of small-scale biogas solutions, but unsure where to start? We’ve got you covered. The Succeed with Small-Scale Biogas foundational course, the first iteration of our Hub, was such a success that it sold out — and now, the sixth cohort is OPEN and ready for you!

This course is not just theory — it’s the culmination of years of hands-on experience as a designer, user, and educator in the biogas field. Every module is built with real-world insights and practical steps to help you succeed in designing and implementing your own biogas system.

Here’s what makes this course truly unique:

Learn at your own pace, but with LIVE support: You’ll have access to bi-weekly Office Hours with Kathy, where you can get your questions answered in real-time. Whether you're stuck on a module or need guidance on your project, you’ll have the support to stay on track and move forward.

Flexible Scheduling for a Global Community: Our course is designed to accommodate different time zones with both evening and morning sessions.

For example, in the 6th cohort, we met every other Wednesday at 7:00pm EST on:

• 1/8, 1/22, 2/5, 2/19, 3/5, 3/19, 4/2, 4/16
  (ideal for participants in the U.S., Asia, Australia, etc.)

We also met every other Wednesday at 6:00am EST on:

• 1/15, 1/29, 2/12, 2/26, 3/12, 3/26, 4/9, 4/23
  (ideal for early risers on the U.S. East Coast, Europe, and Africa).

Recording for missed sessions: If you can’t attend live, no worries! All sessions are recorded and available for you to watch at your convenience.

Exclusive Hub Network membership: Enjoy 24/7 access to a vibrant community of biogas enthusiasts, plus special events throughout the year. You’ll be part of a supportive network that’s with you every step of the way.

Comprehensive workbook: Get a 30+ page workbook to guide you through the process of designing your biogas system. With clear instructions and actionable steps, you’ll move from concept to reality with confidence.

Stay inspired and motivated in the activity feed!  Every week brings fresh engagements and new challenges designed to keep you excited and moving forward in the program. With each step, you'll find new opportunities to learn, grow, and stay connected to your goals. 

Course Pricing:

• Individual: $150 (Early bird rate: $130)

• Household: $200 (Early bird rate: $180)

• If you are a student, farmer, or face financial obstacles to joining us, please email me at [email protected] to discuss scholarships towards tuition.

Click on the course description at the bottom of this page read all more details and sign up. 

Why this course?

If you're ready to design and use a small-scale biogas system that works for you, here’s why this course stands out:

No Overwhelming Technical Jargon:  Unlike other courses, we focus on making biogas simple, practical, and empowering. The goal is for you to feel confident in designing, building, and maintaining your own system—without getting bogged down by complex technical details.

Success Measured by Real-World Results:  Other courses require you to pass a test. But here, success = a system that works for you. As someone who uses biogas every day on my homestead, I know that the real test is having a system that’s effective, easy to use, and sustainable.

Choose the Right System for YOU:  Many courses tie you to a single biogas system. I’ll help you evaluate various options so you can choose the system that best fits your unique needs—whether it’s for your household, farm, or community.

Design for Your Unique Context:  Rather than just teaching you about the technology behind biogas, I’ll show you how to design your system within the context of your life. As a permaculture designer, I’ll help you integrate your biogas system into a whole-systems approach that supports your values and goals.

Designs That Work for Real People:  Too many courses treat all end-users the same, ignoring individual needs. From my experience in the field, I’ve seen systems that aren’t built with real-life use in mind. As a woman, mother, and busy professional who uses biogas daily, I know how crucial it is to design for ergonomics, accessibility, and lifestyle. I’ll show you how to make your system works with your ability, schedule, and local resources.

Will this course work for my context? 

The course is designed to teach you the foundations of biogas, whether you  

• live in a cold, temperate, or tropical climate
• live in an urban, suburban, or rural setting
• live in the United States or other "industrialized" nation
• live in a Global Majority nation
• know how to use tools, or are a beginner
• have financial resources, or you are rich in other ways

If you want to build a small-scale system for your home, homestead, or community, you will feel well-resourced in this community and course.

If you want to build an industrial-scale biogas system, this isn't the course for you. I believe that the many benefits from small-scale biogas multiplied in many homes and communities become a powerful virtual feedback loop that leads towards resilience, while also addressing large-scale issues, like climate mitigation and adaptation, so that's my focus.

What will you learn?

Why cooking on homemade fuel is "a gas!"  Discover how generating your own biogas saves money, turns waste into treasure, and benefits the environment.

Meet the "critters" (microbes that create biogas):  Learn how to care for your "microbe-herd"—the living system at the heart of your biogas digester—to keep them happy and productive.

Build the perfect home for your microbe-herd:  Understand the key design elements of a biodigester—materials, siting, sizing, and how to keep your critters thriving for long-term success.

Design considerations for your specific site:  Apply what you've learned to your unique situation: Choose to build or buy a digester, calculate the right system size, and prepare your site for installation.

Biogas safety:  Bust the myths around biogas safety! Learn practical safety tips, from flammability to general system precautions, based on my experience raising a family around biogas.

Starting your system.  Learn the tricks to successfully introduce your microbe-herd and get your system up and running quickly—so you can start cooking with biogas sooner.

When your microbe-herd isn't happy.  Troubleshoot common issues and get personalized support during "Office Hours" to solve any challenges that arise with your unique system.

Explore beyond cooking: Learn how to convert biogas into energy for different uses and how to make decisions based on your needs.

Bioslurry is gold! Unlock the full potential of bioslurry, the nutrient-rich liquid fertilizer by-product, and discover practical ways to use it in your garden or farm.

Temperate/cold climates: season extension and winterizing
Get tips on keeping your system running smoothly in colder climates, without relying on fossil fuels, so your system stays earth-friendly year-round.

Are you in?

Click on the plan below for even more details.

Pro-tip... payments on iPhones are higher, so that's the price difference you will see below. You might want to enroll when you are on your computer. 

If you live in New York state, please use the "NY State" payment option, which includes sales tax.

Also, regardless of the smartphone you use, it works best to first set up your account and password via a browser, then text yourself the app.

Can't join us this time? SIGN UP HERE to hear when we are enrolling our next cohort.

In the future, I'll have additional courses for purchase after you master the Foundations of Biogas:

How I generate income — through selling vegetables that I grow in a hydroponics system using bioslurry from my biodigester. 

Buying / Building stoves — There are many "hacks" for biogas stoves that I couldn't fit into the already packed "Foundations" course, but in this mini-course, I show you everything I've learned and used in many contexts in many countries. 

Community-based solutions — I've worked in places where a biodigester makes the most sense as a community endeavor. Participatory design is a unique challenge, but if done well, creates fantastic outcomes. The skills developed also enable the community to best navigate operating a biogas system and its income-producing enterprises together.  This course will be FREE to people in global majority nations with financial challenges, and/or people to whom reparations are owed in industrialized nations.

Biogas and sanitation for human health and wellbeing — Biogas can be generated from animal waste, so combining digesters with human toilet systems is a no-brainer. We talk about how this can be done in ways to prevent disease and increase the health of humans, our watersheds, our soil, and more. 

Biogas Educator Certificate Program — Teach my innovative curriculum in your community in a way that is engaging and relevant to your culture and context.  You will learn my proven participatory design and teaching approach, and receive a license to use my "done for you" curriculum, so you can get right to teaching.