Going Green - Sewage Gas for Cooking
I know some countries are using Bio-gas from animal waste for the home, but this new initiative uses gas from sewage.
Some householders will be cooking and heating their homes with renewable gas made from sewage, in a £2.5 million scheme which is a first for the UK.
The use of human waste to generate "biogas" and then feed the green fuel into the gas grid is part of efforts to cut the greenhouse gas emissions from heating and cooking in homes.
The project at Didcot sewage works, Oxfordshire, is a joint venture between British Gas, Thames Water and Scotia Gas Networks, and will produce enough renewable gas to supply up to 200 homes, the companies said.
It is hoped that the project will be the first of many to create renewable heat from waste such as sewage, as the UK aims for its EU goal of supplying 15% of all energy, including heat, from renewables by 2020.
It is estimated by National Grid that at least 15% of the domestic gas market could be supplied by renewable gas, known as biomethane, by 2020.
The scheme sees sewage arriving at the Didcot works for treatment, and then sludge - the solid part of the waste - is further treated in a process known as anaerobic digestion in which bacteria break down the biodegradable material and creates gas.
The gas is cleaned before it is fed into the gas grid, in a process which takes around 20 days from toilet flush to being piped back to people's homes.
Anaerobic digestion is already used to create renewable electricity from sewage - with the gas burned to produce power - but this is the first time the biogas has been pumped directly into the grid for use in homes.
Under the proposed Renewable Heat Incentive, which was set to be introduced next April but is currently subject to the Government's spending review, subsidies would be paid for renewable gas being put into the grid.
Source: Guardian
most of the watering in doha is done in the afternoons. thats why you miss the smell.
jack, that's true i don't walk on the grasses here with my barefoot...:)))
Lol drmana... they could have add something in the water... to keep away people from walking on the grass and spoiling its visual beauty...lol
I think they should also keep a sign board "watered with your piss run in it or roll in it... be comfortable... after all its yours"... lol
s_isale, i was meant to say that "i don't want to know the procedures to convert HUMAN wastes and SEWAGE as said in the article above"...And not about the ones that are already in use in INDIA for decades....ok...
My bad... Actually, the energy supplier in my area of London is offering incentives and "leasing" of solar panels if we convert the heating systems to solar energy.
I don't know the reason but the stink was just too much to bear every evening. Not much different than the smell of raw sewage I would say.
Haven't encountered similar problem in Doha yet. May be because there aren't as many grassy area here than in Dubai.
drmana may be its also due to the urea/manure... they add to the sand... the whole area stinks during the time the grass is installed as that is the time they put in a lot of urea/manure....
is not as high as they use here. Yes, all water used n watering grass in public places are TSE!
Grass here doesn't smell as bad as they do in Dubai and hence I thought it wasn't TSE here. It smells so bad in Dubai in the evenings when grass is being watered if you happen to be anywhere nearby.
That's why idea of sewage gas for cooking is No No for me.
I would happily use solar energy if that can be arranged.
leave running, dont even go near it....
Lol Soniya... if that freaks you out ... you rather not run in the grass here....
the water used to sprinkle on the grass is Treated Sewage Effluent (TSE)...he he he
looks like soniya is not from India.
you ask any schoolgoing kid in India and they will know about gobar gas and the related stuff. it is even taught in schools
Almost everybody with a farm in India uses Biogas...
The flame is blueish in colour and doesnt char the vessels
The smell of that gas (methane) is would be like rotten eggs... but would be odour less once lit.
If the people pushing "Climate Change" have their way this production will be stopped as they consider "production of Water Vapour, Carbon Dioxide and Methane" responsible for Global Warming.
Thus all such households would have to depend upon piped Oil/Gas supplied by those Companies who are obviously funding "Climate Change Research"
and fast. We need these kind of development!
Photons are the culprits, chocoholic.
Cloudy places can have solar energy. It's about UV light, not necessarily direct sunlight.
brit, photovoltaic requires light, not the sun. Even if you think the sun doesn't shine, there is still enough light to generate current. It's photons which do the job, not heat! And for the night (dark, no light) you will use the batteries which were charged during the daylight times.
Bad news for qatar. Qatar hates renewable energy sources.
many people prefer to cook with gas than electricity. Also, what about places where there is a lack of sun .. UK :O)
I would prefer solar energy or other renewable energy but not this :-(
biogas using cowdung is usually on a very small scale. It is usually for single households and requires maintenace by the user - albeit simple. it is not clear whether it actually helps on the green house emissions side.
this is on a much larger scale. the idea is to provide whole suburbs or cities with clean fuel whilst reducing the carbon footprint.
the good thing is that you don't have to know where it comes from ... ;O)
There are so many alternative forms of energy, if countries/govts/consumers would make them a priority...
Can we harness this? Food waste as energy?
http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/study-american-food-waste-is-a-huge-energy-drain/19657522
Or at least increase awareness so as to cut down on the waste?
brit, yes it's been used in INDIA for more than a decade now..It's been used mostly in the rural section of our society...As FS said above, COWDUNGS and other organic wastes are used for producing such GAS and not HUMAN WASTES...
But i wanna keep myself away from it...:D..Infact i am also not interested to know the ways and procedures to convert these WASTES into GAS which can be use for cooking...
we also have biogas in our country but that fuel is in use for transportation purposes mostly
it has been used in India since time immemorial.
yea Biogas was popular in our place from long time back...but its not from human waste but from cowdung and other organic waste..:) back home …many ppl who own cattle are using it for cooking!
Brit..United Kerala is more advanced..:)
As tinkerbell says , it is already being used in india on a small scale.
Why should you as a consumer worry what the source is as long as it serves the purpose and is green.
brit, but the very idea of using SEWAGE GAS or HUMAN WASTE freaks me out....
But I'll prefer not knowing the whole "technical" side of it all..lol
The gas smells like any other cooking gas..
by the way, the gas is usually odourless. the "smell" is added for your own safety :O)
why am I not so keen about this..
i wonder what would be the scent of this "biogas" when used for cooking :)
on a serious note, this is a good step towards cutting greenhouse emission.