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“The \"Benma\" biogas vehicles: a new engine for rural biogas projects. On September 10th, Chu Jinfu, the chairman of Henan Benma Co., Ltd., who was having lunch with friends, could hardly contain his joy and kept sharing the good news with those present: following Shaanxi Province’s recent decision to purchase 562 biogas vehicles to support local biogas project development, Luoyang City decided to buy 500 such vehicles, while Nanyang City decided to purchase 300. He said, “The product has only been on the market for a year, and even at full production capacity, we still can’t meet market demand.” ”This biogas vehicle is a new type of agricultural vehicle developed by Henan Benma Co., Ltd. through innovative improvements based on traditional agricultural vehicles. It integrates over 10 domestic-leading technologies such as pump body separation, sludge suction and crushing, vacuum drying, and overflow prevention, and features functions like self-priming crushing, pressurized discharge, and remote spraying. It is an ideal tool for promoting the use of biogas as a new energy source in the construction of new rural areas. As is well known, biogas is a clean and renewable energy source that is inexhaustible; it is widely available in rural areas of our country, where its potential is enormous. Developing rural biogas allows for the full utilization of waste materials such as agricultural straws and manure from livestock, providing farmers with clean, safe, and efficient energy for their production and daily life. It can free the vast number of farmers, especially rural women, from the dirty and laborious work in the kitchen, sparing them the suffering caused by smoke and heat. According to experts’ calculations, a biogas tank with a capacity of 6–8 cubic meters can produce around 400 cubic meters of biogas per year. This amount is sufficient to meet the fuel needs of a family of 3–5 people for one year; it also allows for a savings of approximately 1,600 kilograms of coal and around 230 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year ； It is also possible to improve the dirty, messy, and poor conditions in rural areas. Crop straws and manure that have been piled up in disorder for a long time can be converted into raw materials for biogas, which are then fed directly into biogas tanks. Through fermentation, these materials are processed in an environmentally friendly manner; pathogens and parasite eggs are destroyed, thereby eliminating sources of infection and cutting off the spread of diseases. This helps to reduce the occurrence of diseases significantly. It also resolves the problem of sewage flowing in rural courtyards and streets, improves the quality of air and water in rural areas, and addresses environmental hygiene issues right within households and courtyards. As a result, the appearance of rural areas changes fundamentally over time, enabling farmers to lead healthier lives in clean and hygienic conditions. More importantly, since the biogas slurry and residue produced after biogas fermentation can be used as high-quality fertilizers and feed for farmland, fruit orchards, vegetables, fish ponds, as well as for poultry and livestock, biogas connects the breeding industry with the planting industry. This enables the formation of an ecological economic model that includes biogas, animal husbandry, fruit orchard cultivation, fisheries, and vegetable and flower production. It plays a significant role in achieving \"three savings\" (saving firewood, electricity, and labor), \"three increases\" (increasing fertilizer use, crop yields, and economic benefits), and \"one improvement\" (improving the rural environment). It not only addresses practical challenges in rural areas such as the shortage of fuel, feed, and fertilizers, as well as the lack of funds and labor among farmers, but also frees farmers from heavy household chores, allowing them to engage in other forms of production and non-agricultural activities. This helps to optimize the structure of the rural labor force and lays a solid foundation for rural economic development. ****The State Council has always attached great importance to the development of rural biogas systems. Since 2001, central leaders have issued 14 important directives regarding the development of rural biogas systems; specific regulations such as the \"Management Measures for National Debt Projects for Rural Biogas Development\" were formulated, and the Planning Commission also issued provisions such as the \"Interim Regulations on the Management of New Energy Infrastructure Projects\". The \"**Proposals of the Central Committee on Formulating the 11th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development,\" adopted at the Fifth Plenary Session of the 16th Party Committee in October 2005, set forth the important historical task of building a new socialist countryside. It emphasized that starting from 2006, investment in rural biogas projects should be significantly increased; in areas where conditions permit, the widespread use of household biogas systems should be promoted, and support should be provided for farms to establish large and medium-sized biogas facilities. “Use biogas digester construction to drive improvements in rural livestock shelters, toilets, and kitchens. Document No. 1 issued by the central government in 2007 emphasized even more the need to continue increasing investment in rural biogas projects, and to support areas with the necessary conditions in carrying out large-scale and medium-sized biogas installations in livestock farms. Accelerate the implementation of rural cleaning projects, and advance the comprehensive treatment and utilization of human and animal manure, crop straws, household waste, and sewage. Despite the many advantages of biogas production, as well as the strong attention paid to it by the Party and ** and the high popularity among farmers, the development of biogas in rural areas of our country has still followed a pattern of two declines and three rises. From the late 1960s to the early 1970s, there was a boom in biogas development in our country, with over 6 million biogas digesters built; however, most of these digesters were discarded after a short time. In the late 1970s, some provinces and cities saw a new upsurge in the development of biogas; within just a few years, more than 7 million biogas systems were installed, but most of them failed to operate continuously. By the end of 1983, the total number of biogas installations nationwide was only 4 million. In recent years, with the strong support of the Party and **, the development of rural biogas has once again shown an upward trend. There are mainly two reasons for this: the first is the constraint posed by the problem that \"biogas is useful, but biogas sludge is difficult to dispose of.\" Although biogas production provides farmers with clean energy and is environmentally friendly, it is highly popular among them. But farmers also have their own concerns: after 1 to 2 years of operation, if the settled biogas sludge and waste biogas liquid are not removed from the digester in a timely manner, they cannot be utilized effectively, and instead it reduces the digester’s gas production efficiency and utilization rate. In addition to issues such as high labor intensity, technical difficulties, and logistical challenges, manual cleaning presents another more serious problem: it is unsafe. In life, all sorts of accidents often happen. A farmer in Changyang County, Hubei Province, accidentally knocked over a light bulb that had been placed in his biogas tank while cleaning out the sludge and liquid from it. This caused the methane gas in the tank to catch fire, and the intense flames engulfed him, resulting in burns covering over 80% of his body. A farmer woman in Gaoming Town, Dali County, Shaanxi Province, fainted after being exposed to methane gas while trying to clear the feed inlet in a pond; her son quickly called on neighbors for help, and together the two villagers managed to rescue the farmer woman, but they themselves lost their lives in the process. “The advantage of biogas lies in its usefulness, but the difficulty in dealing with biogas residue has become a bottleneck hindering the widespread use of biogas in rural areas. ； The second issue lies in the lack of a scientific and rational operational model for the development and promotion of biogas use in rural areas. Although various levels of government are actively promoting it and providing policy support, biogas users in rural areas do not benefit from this, which results in a lack of internal motivation to promote the use of biogas. To establish a new model for the commercial operation of rural biogas project construction, it is necessary to address the \"bottleneck\" issue of an imperfect service system caused by a lack of feeding and discharging equipment, which hinders the advancement of biogas adoption. After identifying this potential business opportunity through thorough investigation and analysis, Benma Company quickly assembled a team of skilled professionals. Taking into account the actual processes of feeding and discharging materials in rural biogas systems, as well as the needs related to the transportation and treatment of biogas slurry, the company utilized advanced domestic technology for developing low-speed vehicles as a foundation. Based on specialized three-wheeled vehicle chassis and relying on independent innovation, along with 12 patented technologies, it successfully developed a specialized vacuum-powered vehicle for biogas applications that possesses multiple functions. This vehicle can navigate easily through narrow rural roads and urban streets and alleys. By using an engine to drive a vacuum pump, it creates a vacuum inside the tank; the pressure difference between the inside and outside of the tank then enables the automatic suction of liquid substances such as biogas slurry and residue from the biogas digester into the tank, where they can be transported, pressurized, and discharged (sprayed) at the desired location. This approach not only saves labor but is also safe and reliable, making it an ideal tool for various tasks involving the extraction, transportation, discharge, and spraying of liquid substances. The Benma biogas vehicle can be used to provide paid services to biogas users, as well as by rural and urban sanitation departments for pumping out waste from septic tanks and sewers and removing sediment. Individual biogas users, large-scale biogas service stations, and professional biogas companies can all take advantage of the product’s various functions such as automatic suction and pumping, as well as pressurized discharge (spraying), to provide biogas slurry and raw materials to other biogas users on a paid basis, and to pump up biogas slurry and residue on a paid basis. Since biogas slurry can be used as a foliar fertilizer and feed additive, and is non-toxic and harmless, while biogas residue can be used to prepare nutrient soil for use as organic fertilizer, it is possible to sell this biogas slurry and residue to vegetable gardens, fruit orchards, and flower beds as organic fertilizers, as well as to poultry and livestock farms as feed additives. This not only eliminates the various inconveniences associated with manually removing biogas slurry and residue but also increases the income of those who use biogas. It further improves the utilization rate of biogas, biogas slurry, and biogas residue, thereby creating an inherent incentive for the promotion and use of biogas. This gives rise to a new commercial model for the dissemination of biogas in rural areas, enabling the accelerated development of new energy sources and modern agriculture across the country, helping to increase farmers’ incomes, improving the conditions in rural areas, enhancing the quality of life for farmers, and ultimately contributing to the advancement of new rural development. A user who was considering buying a vehicle did some calculations: if 50 yuan is charged per household, and 10 households are targeted per day, that amounts to 500 yuan in revenue. Meanwhile, the costs related to fuel consumption, labor, and depreciation total only a little over 200 yuan, so the cost of the vehicle is recovered in less than a year. Biogas slurry and residue are high-quality and efficient organic fertilizers, and the best fertilizers for growing fruits, trees, and vegetables. If sold to fruit, vegetable, and herb growers, equivalent to chemical fertilizers, each truckload can be sold for at least around 100 yuan, offering equally substantial economic benefits. **After conducting a thorough inspection of the product, the leaders of the relevant authorities and experts said earnestly that the successful development of the Benma biogas vehicle represents a significant step in implementing the central government’s strategic decisions regarding the construction of new socialist rural areas. It constitutes a successful exploration of new ways to support, serve, and benefit agriculture, rural areas, and farmers. It is also a pioneering effort to promote biogas projects in rural areas and the adoption of new energy sources. Furthermore, it represents a successful application of advanced scientific and technological solutions to agricultural machinery, and it is a valuable contribution to the creation of harmonious rural societies as well as environmentally sustainable and resource-efficient societies. This product features excellent design, great options, and superior performance; it is a valuable tool for building a new socialist countryside and fostering a harmonious society. Good products naturally have a good market. Currently, this product is in mass production and has been installed in over 2,000 biogas service centers across 16 provinces and regions in China. It was also awarded the sole subsidy for the purchase of specialized equipment for handling biogas slurry and residue among non-standard agricultural machinery in Hubei Province in 2008. With lofty mountains and long distances ahead, and a long journey to undertake, in the great endeavor of building new socialist countrysides and within the historical process of developing socialism with Chinese characteristics, the steed will surely be able to carve out a vast realm of its own, and those who ride it will certainly blaze a path of their own unique brilliance.