Methane

Supplying the Pfunda Tea Factory<, Lake Kivu, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo
Michel Halbwachs

Kivu Lake between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, contains an enormous quantity of dissolved methane. Exploiting this methane is a fabulous opportunity for the economic development of this region. This gas also constitutes a risk of cataclysmic explosion, as occurred in Cameroon at Nyos Lake. A scientific French and Swiss group studied the physicochemical characteristics of the lake and evaluated the risk of a gas explosion. The Company Data Environnement has set up a pilot station to extract the methane for energetic purposes and proposed the promotion of this gas for diverse applications.