Hi Northern Santuary,
This may sound ignorant, but would there be some odd smell cooking with methane?
Natural gas is essential methane; it's colorless and odorless. It's the hydrogen sulfate compounds that give the rotten egg smell, if it exists.
Vidya, your picture is worth a thousand words. By myself, I was using that (a toilet seat on top of a hole in the ground), but for 40 people it's a bigger problem.
The biogas digester can be made to work in a commuity; I'll have to investigate it, but some forum people here have the know how.
/NS