Manchester, U.K. Producing Methane from Human Waste
by Ariel Schwartz in Alternative Energy
Cities across the world have begun to embrace methane gas produced from human waste. Now Manchester, U.K. has announced an ambitious scheme to convert sewage produced by city residents to biomethane in waste water treatment plants.
Waste water treatment plants will use human waste to create biomethane
While most sewage plants burn raw methane to create electricity, Manchester’s plant cleans the gas by removing CO2, moisture, and sulfides from the mix. The clear, odorless gas will have to be given a fake gas-like smell before it can be pumped into homes.
Manchester’s $7 million system, developed by National Grid and United Utilities, will produce enough biomethane to power 500 homes when it comes online in 2011. Human waste will also be used to power the utilities’ sludge tankers. In the future, Manchester’s sewage plant–the second largest in Britain–will produce enough waste-based biomethane for 5,000 homes. Eventually, the U.K. plans to use the biomethane in sewage plants around the country.
Last year, San Antonio, Texas announced a similar plan to harvest methane gas from human waste. When the sewage plant goes online, it will harvest 90% of San Antonio’s toilet and sink waste to generate 1.5 million cubic feet of natural gas each day.
[Via BBC News]
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Posted on Jun 18, 2009
gas, human waste, manchester, methane, natural gas, poo power
About the Author
Ariel Schwartz
Ariel Schwartz is the editor of Cleantechnica.com and writes for Fast Company, Inhabitat, Triple Pundit, SF Weekly, and NBC Bay Area Online. A graduate of Vassar College, she has previously worked in publishing, organic farming, documentary film, and newspaper journalism. Her interests include permaculture, hiking, skiing, music, relocalization, and cob (the building material). She currently resides in San Francisco, CA.3 Responses to “Manchester, U.K. Producing Methane from Human Waste”
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Twitter: @ronitbaras
Jun 18, 2009
Hooray for human inventions!
Sometime ago, residents of an Australian city near Brisbane had to vote on drinking filtered “pre loved” water and many thought the idea, well, stank, but converting poo to energy should be a lot more (ahem) palatable…
Go Manchester!
nestee
Twitter: @Twitter Name (optional)
Jun 19, 2009
On the surface this looks like a great idea, but you really have to investigate the numbers associated with this setup. I live directly across from a sewage treatment plant in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. The treatment plant set up a cogeneration plant which essentially takes 100% of the methane produced by the human waste. Running at peak efficiency, the cogeneration produces up to 2.25 MW. That amount is only sufficient to run 50-60% of the waste plant’s annual energy needs.
I looked at siphoning power from the plant during non-peak times to power my neighborhood of 50 townhouses. The plant would only be able to supply 5-10% of the community’s annual power usage. It get worse when you add additional homes.
Bottomline: you can use the power either to power the waste plant or give electricity to 500 homes as detailed above. My opinion: calling this “green” energy for the homes is a bit of a misnomer because you still have to power the operations of the waste plant (likely a non-renewable fossil fuel).
Manchester’s plan would be green if the human waste produce 120% of the waste plant’s energy needs, with the excess 20% sent to power homes
Alok Kumar
Dec 03, 2009
hello mam,
im Alok Kumar from India and am very interested in generating energy from human sewage. I am a final year B.Tech student and have chosen this as my final year project.
i have made arrangements for a tank for sewage (solid waste) storage too. I REQUIRE YOUR HELP TO CONTINUE WITH MY PROJECT. I WOULD NEED THE REQUIREMENTS TO BUILD A SMALL SCALE PROTOTYPE PLANT. I HOPE YOU WILL HELP ME OUT. THANKING YOU IN ANTICIPATION.