the power of goo

The recent wrangling between Ukraine and Russia over Natural Gas Transit to western Europe got me looking into natural gas and biogas. So I stumbled across “The Complete Biogas Handbook”.

The first tidbits I was able to read online looked rather simple from a trained chemical engineers point of view but hands on from an “I want that in my backyard” angle. So I am looking forward to getting the book soon, to judge it in its entirety. The review is to follow  soon.

From my preliminary reading of “The Complete Biogas Handbook” and other sources (wikipedia and a lot of googling) biogas and natural gas are essentially the same, the latter having been sequestered in porous layers of rock for eons, after being produced like the former by anaerobic bacteria decomposing organic matter.

As natural gas is heavily treated prior to consumption (acidic impurities, mercaptanes from protein) I wondered what are we doing with biogas? After all it is inadvertently (vide odour) produced in sewage treatment plants: Are we putting it to use already?

Turns out some places are: sewage treatment facilities and land fills.

The city of Munich, Bavaria for example is doing it at its main waste water treatment plant and landfill site. So it is a proven technology. Just google for biogas plants and you will find a plethora of trade associations and engineering companies offering a large portfolio of technologies.

What I have not been able to figure out is how much energy we could produce e.g. in co-generation power plants using the organic matter we collect using our cities sewers and from the separate collection of kitchen and garden waste. I remember reading that for example Germany might be able to replace up to 10% of its natural gas imports by the biogas made from organic waste materials. This might have a huge impact on decreasing a nations reliance on energy imports. Unfortunately I don’t remember the source.

As all these processes rely on bacteria (anaerobic and methanogenic archae) one starts to think why won’t we start where the plants do and use carbon dioxide. Peakenergy has a nice post and link to an inspiring talk given by Craig Venter. I am really looking forward to see what he and the other guys he mentioned come up with as fourth generation biofuels.