Poop power

Telegraph:

The £4.3 million scheme will see enough methane gas extracted from human waste to provide fuel for heating and cooking for up to 5,000 homes by 2011.

The project is the first of its kind in Britain and the biomethane is being hailed as a "fuel for the future" because of its green credentials.

It will be run from the city's Davyhulme waste water treatment works, which is Britain's second biggest sewage works, and the gas will be supplied through the local pipeline network.

Further plants are expected to be built in the future, bringing the renewable fuel to hundreds of thousands of British homes.

...

Biogas is produced when wastewater sludge is broken down by the action of microbes in a process known as `anaerobic digestion'.

The biogas then needs to be upgraded to biomethane, which is a renewable fuel with similar properties to natural gas.

Biomethane can be safely compressed for use in vehicles or injected into the gas grid.

The gas produced at Davyhulme will also be used to power the utilities firm's sludge tankers and burned to provide electricity to the plant.

...

I don't guess they have a unit that can hook up to my septic system. In fact, I am pretty sure that I don't produce enough poop to power more than a few light bulbs. I am pretty sure I would not want to cook with poop gas.

They don't say why this "natural gas" is better than the real thing which is probably cheaper to use. But if they want to make energy from poop, I am sure there are many willing to give them the fuel for free.