Jean Pain

Jean Pain (12 December 1928 – 30 July 1981) was a Swiss-bornFrench inventor and innovator who developed a compost-based bioenergy system that produced 100% of his energy needs. He heated water to 60 °C (140 °F) at a rate of 4 litres per minute (0.88 imp gal/min; 1.1 US gal/min) which he used for washing and heating. He also distilled enough methane to run an electricity generator, cooking elements, and power his truck. This method of creating usable energy from composting materials has come to be known as "Jean Pain Composting", or the "Jean Pain Method".

Personal life

Jean and his wife, Ida, lived near Domaine des Templiers, on a 241-hectare (596-acre) timber tract near the Alpes de Provence.

Jean Pain Composting

The raw materials of Pain's compost heap were saplings, branches, and underbrush. He spent a considerable amount of time developing the machines required to macerate these materials to the proper size. One of his machines, a tractor-driven model, earned fourth prize in the 1978 Grenoble Agricultural Fair. After he had ground the raw materials, Pain would construct a heap three metres high and six metres across (10 × 20 feet). The heap weighed approximately 50 tonnes (49 long tons; 55 short tons), and was mounded over a steel tank with a capacity of 4 cubic metres (140 cu ft). This tank was 3/4 full of the same compost, which had first been steeped in water for two months. The hermetically sealed tank was connected by tubing to 24 truck tyre inner tubes, banked nearby to collect the methane gas. The gas was distilled by being washed through small stones in water and compressed. Pain used the gas for cooking and producing electricity. He also fueled a light van. Pain estimated that 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of brushwood would supply the gas equivalent of one litre (0.22 imp gal; 0.26 US gal) of petrol.