It sounds like a race against time, to capture the methane gas bubbling up from beneath the water in Rwanda.

In 1986, a similar phenomenon killed an estimated 1,700 people when gas erupted from Lake Nyos in Cameroon, suffocating almost everyone within 25 kilometers of the lake.

Scientists believe a similar process occurs at Lake Kivu roughly every 1000 years, devastating life in the area. If it were to occur today, some two million people living around the lake could be killed.

In order to prevent this, the Rwandan government is trying to pump the methane out of Lake Kivu, and put it to good use.

The infrastructure, however, is not ready to support the new source of available energy.

“The gas in the lake has the potential to produce a total of 700 megawatts of electricity,” [engineer Alex Kabuto] said, adding that it is much more than Rwanda needs. “It is our aim to generate enough energy to be able to export electricity.”

But that is currently far from reality.

As things stand only ten percent of homes are connected to the grid. About 11 megawatts are generated by hydroelectric power, but most of Rwanda’s energy comes from diesel generators.

I wonder if anyone is considering this as a good use case for methane-diesel options, like experimental Volvo engines.