The 2022 waste-to-energy plan: what happened

A bold plan, and a useful distinction

In 2022, Patrick Melder spoke about turning waste into electricity for bitcoin mining around Panajachel. His proposals changed over the year: first a leaking wastewater biodigester, then a larger solid-waste facility, alongside an undeveloped idea for unusually cheap energy. These were proposals, not evidence that a waste-to-energy plant was operating. The project did build and run a smaller experiment called Kaboom, using used cooking oil in an old diesel generator. In 2025, local leader Eliazar said that engine was not working and that the team was testing a different idea, making diesel from plastic. This article separates the ambitions from the outcomes the sources actually document. [Patrick Melder, June 2022 interview, 36:45-42:20; Patrick Melder, March 2022 interview, 16:50-17:22; Eliazar, The Orange Journey, 2025, 5:40-6:31]

The first target: methane at the wastewater plant

In March 2022, Melder described a cracked biodigester at Panajachel's wastewater treatment plant. He said it leaked methane and carbon dioxide and was not being flared. His proposed fix was to seal or repair it, capture and burn the gas in a generator, then use that electricity to mine bitcoin. He estimated that the gas might power 17 or 19 larger S19 miners, but the machines he brought for an initial demonstration were older S9s. In a later interview he again said the digester leaked and laid out a plan to cap it. Those interviews document the problem as he described it and the proposed engineering, not a completed repair or a running methane-powered mine. In November 2022 a German public TV crew filmed him at the plant. The narrator says the treatment plant had stood idle for years, that a grid connection was too expensive for the town, and that the sewage flowed past it. Patrick said he would like to burn the methane to make power and mine bitcoin, with a waste incinerator as the next stage. [Patrick Melder, March 2022 interview, 16:50-18:31; Patrick Melder, May 2022 interview, 59:01-61:01; Bitcoin Lago's Kaboom history, wastewater plan sources; BR film Bitcoineros, Nov 2022, 6:14; BR film Bitcoineros, Nov 2022, 6:35; BR film Bitcoineros, Nov 2022, 6:57]

Landfill, coffee husks and unused digesters

Melder also pointed to the open landfill above Panajachel, where he said rain carried runoff toward the watershed and lake. By September 2022, he described a proposed UK technology partner that could process mixed landfill waste into energy, with a facility that would eventually mine bitcoin. He forecast a first-in-the-world solid-waste-to-bitcoin facility within 12 to 18 months. That was his claim and timetable, not a verified ranking or a project completion. He also mentioned coffee-processing husks piled to rot near Santiago Atitlán and three installed biodigesters he said he found empty on a mountain above Panajachel. The sources reviewed here do not confirm that these digesters were put into use. At the landfill in the same film, he describes a waste sorting and biogas plant whose electricity would mine bitcoin. He calls it a million-dollar project and says part of the bitcoin would go back to the community as a basic income. [Patrick Melder, June 2022 interview, 38:48-39:50; Patrick Melder, March 2022 interview, 35:33-36:38; Patrick Melder, September 2022 interview, 8:44-9:40; Patrick Melder, September 2022 interview, 19:00-19:41; Patrick Melder, June 2022 interview, 45:57-46:59; BR film Bitcoineros, Nov 2022, 42:39; BR film Bitcoineros, Nov 2022, 43:37]

The cheap-energy idea stayed unexplained

In June 2022, Melder called free energy the holy grail of bitcoin mining. He said he had identified a proprietary technology tied to the water behind him at Lake Atitlán and believed it could become the cheapest power source for mining. In a later interview, he described another proprietary technology that could take standing water and create energy, and projected a price of roughly one cent per kilowatt hour. He did not name the technology or explain how it worked. No source reviewed for this article confirms a deployment, an achieved energy price, or a result. We therefore treat this as a founder's unelaborated ambition, not a proven energy project. [Patrick Melder, June 2022 interview, 40:39-42:20; Patrick Melder, interview uploaded April 2024, 42:22-44:15 (recording date unclear)]

What was built: Kaboom, not the landfill plant

The project instead demonstrated Kaboom, a used-cooking-oil generator. Patrick described the old diesel engine, filtered restaurant oil and bitcoin mining in September 2022. In May 2023, Eliazar showed the setup in a video interview and said its generator could power two miners, not three. This is evidence of a small working demonstration, not proof that the separate landfill, wastewater-methane or cheap-water-energy plans were built. A distinct piece of hardware was a donated S9 miner accepted by Panajachel's mayor in March 2022; Patrick later said one miner was running at the municipality. He also described a node and a miner at the school, but the available sources do not independently establish their later status. [Patrick Melder, September 2022 interview, 10:23-13:01; Eliazar, Pizza Mining with Bitcoin, May 2023, 14:20-18:07; Panajachel mayor accepts a miner, 25 March 2022; Patrick Melder, interview uploaded April 2024, 50:43-50:47 (recording date unclear); Patrick Melder, Adopting Bitcoin talk, November 2022, 6:12-6:52]

The company and seed round remained plans

In a late-2022 interview, Melder described a separate Guatemalan bioenergy company and a UK technology group as part of the larger waste project. He said the team was seeking a US$1.5 million seed round, and that building the facility would take a little over a year after funding. The same interview records that the seed money had not been obtained at the time. The 12-to-18-month forecast he gave in September 2022 therefore cannot be presented as a completed facility: the sources we reviewed show no plant commissioning or evidence that the financing closed. His language about a world first belongs to the promise, not a confirmed historical fact. In November 2022 he told the German TV crew that the hardest part was raising money while the bitcoin price was low. [Patrick Melder, Bitcoin Rapid-Fire, November 2022, 58:48-61:32; Patrick Melder, September 2022 interview, 19:00-19:41; BR film Bitcoineros, Nov 2022, 35:24]

The 2025 update changes the picture

In 2025, Eliazar said Kaboom's cooking-oil engine was not working and that he did not know why it had stopped generating electricity. He said the team was then working on making diesel from plastic as a proof of concept, and was looking for funding to scale it. That is the newest direct status in the sources reviewed here. It does not establish that plastic-derived fuel was powering miners at commercial scale. The contrast is the clearest answer to what happened: the ambitious waste-to-energy facility remained unconfirmed, while a smaller oil-powered experiment was actually run, later failed, and gave way to a plastic-to-diesel test. See also our separate account of Kaboom for its operating history and unresolved details. [Eliazar, The Orange Journey, 2025, 5:40-6:31; Kaboom: documented operation and open questions]