Farmer energy independence
Improve usable cooking energy from cow dung and local biomass.
Research Lab
HFN BioGas Microbiome & Circular Bioeconomy Lab
HFN is building an applied research and innovation lab focused on helping small and marginal farmers become energy and fertilizer independent using locally available biological resources.
Can a farmer with only 2-3 cattle produce most of their cooking energy and fertilizer needs from locally available waste streams?
Vision
India's leading applied microbiome and biogas innovation lab for small farmers.
Better organic fertilizer
Improve bio-slurry quality, nutrient value, soil benefit and farmer use.
Higher biological performance
Study microbial communities that drive methane generation and digester stability.
Circular village systems
Turn local waste into energy, fertilizer, savings, jobs and resilience.
Areas Of Research
Practical outcomes over academic publications alone.
Each research area is tied to a field result: faster startup, better gas consistency, improved methane production, stronger stability, better feedstock use, odor reduction or higher-quality slurry.
Biogas microbiome research
Study hydrolysis, acidogenesis, acetogenesis and methanogenesis to understand why some digesters generate more methane than others.
High-performance starter cultures
Develop microbial starters that reduce startup time, improve gas output, increase stability and help digest difficult feedstocks.
Feedstock optimization
Evaluate cow dung, dry dung cakes, crop residues, kitchen waste, vegetable waste, fruit waste, fishery waste and local biomass.
Biogas booster development
Research biological and mineral additives that may improve microbial health, methane percentage, odor reduction and slurry quality.
Slurry and biofertilizer research
Improve nutrient retention, carbon content, soil health benefits and the commercial value of digestate as a farm input.
Climate and regional adaptation
Evaluate digester performance across cold, hot and humid regions, cattle breeds and different agricultural systems.
Phase 1 Lab
Initial laboratory infrastructure for controlled testing and field-linked learning.
Biogas testing digesters
Methane analysis systems
pH and ORP testing
Microbiology workspace
Microscopy and incubation
Anaerobic culture equipment
Sample preparation systems
Data collection and analytics
Long-Term Ambition
Build a world-class applied biogas microbiome lab, starting from India.
Over time, the laboratory aims to become one of the world's leading applied biogas microbiome labs, with India's field conditions as the learning ground. The work will build a biogas microbiome knowledge base, microbial strain repository for anaerobic digestion, AI-assisted biogas optimization models, proprietary microbial starter cultures and low-cost solutions deployable at village scale.
Local waste. Local energy. Local fertilizer. Local resilience. Join the Team