Inspiring Customers
From time to time, we encounter customers whose journeys are so unique and interesting that we like to share them with our readers. We recently had the pleasure of speaking in depth with one of our very passionate HomeBiogas family members, Paul Poston, and today we are proud to share his story.
Paul is an honorable 31-year old Marine Corps veteran who served time overseas in Iraq. While he was deployed, he filled much of his free time with reading. He began researching alternative energies and their design. The topic was particularly intriguing to him because he ultimately wanted become more self-sufficient and reduce his reliance on fossil fuels.
After loyally serving his country, Paul returned to the states to take on a civilian job. He initially worked as an airplane mechanic and then later as a miner. Mining was dirty, harmful work. The repeated exposure inspired him to revisit his clean energy research. That’s when he learned about biogas. “I saw people on YouTube lighting swamp gas on fire as it bubbled up! So I said, ‘well let me try this!’” And, he waded into his pond with a funnel, captured the gas, lit it, and “Wouldn’t you know it caught on fire! And it made me think… how can I use my pond to harvest this gas?”
Determined to invent a machine to utilize this naturally occurring energy, his curiosity guided him down a rabbit hole on the Internet where he found the HomeBiogas 2.0 Kickstarter page and discovered that a refined system was already being created. “Wow!” he thought, “This is actually a thing! It’s real, it’s science, holy crap!” He had already proven that the concept worked, but now saw that there was appliance that was easy to set up and doing the exact same thing that he wanted to invent. And all it needed to start producing was a little poop. Holy crap, indeed!
Paul eagerly contributed to the Kickstarter campaign. He thinks every family in America should have a system to decrease the amount of food waste he so keenly describes as “obscene.” Since receiving the system in June, he has been and active and engaging user, taking full advantage of our HomeBiogas System Owners Facebook group, collaborating with others and sharing videos of his experiences and achievements. He enthusiastically likens his system to a bacterial ant farm, “you put one or two bacteria in, you raise them, and then next thing you know, like an ant farm, you got millions of them and they’re working for you!
“So you can see just how terribly excited I get about this because it’s amazing and it’s simple and it’s so mind-blowing!”
The HomeBiogas system has supported Paul’s journey toward self-reliance. It enables him to cook his home-grown chicken eggs on clean natural energy, reducing his reliance on fossil fuels. It provides a simple solution to regenerating his waste on-site, decreasing his dependence on sanitation services. It provides a nutrient rich fertilizer for him to nourish the soil for his fruit trees, diminishing the need for store-bought fertilizer.
Learning about biogas has effectively steered Paul’s life direction. The research he began back in the Marine Corp has been raised to a new level. Paul is now attending a private college where his focus is Environmental Studies. He’s spreading the biogas word far and wide, exhibiting projects and giving presentations on anaerobic digestion and its benefits. A true proponent of the concept, he effortlessly works to enlighten his friends, family and the general public of the great potential impact it could have if it were fully embraced. We thank you, Paul, for your dedicated service on all fronts. Semper Fi!
