Biogas UK

spadoosh

Why isnt it that popular?

I cant say i know much about biogas but my understanding is it takes waste and makes gas. I know theres issues with temperature but also believe theres ways round it. Not to mention there a fair few farmers who seem to use it (im guessing thats what the big green cylinder things are on farms)

Now i saw a few years ago the home biogas reactors and thought, thats ace. A more or less self sustaining supply of gas (as clean as gas can get too!).

So why dont we have more 'home' biogas reactors in the UK? Why isnt it integrated in to places like flats?! Which could easily be used to warm the building from the residents poo.

Id like to learn as much as possible on the topic as well so any info or links you could provide would be greatly appreciated.

Things like, mixing types of waste (foodwaste mixed with human waste/animal waste) I know certain foods/wastes break down more easily or produce more gas but does using all types of waste drastically reduce output?

Thanks for any replies!

EricMears

I'm really not sure but rather suspect that one household doesn't produce enough 'raw material' to make any impact on its own consumption and of course the cost of the necessary plant would be pretty big.

Possible that it might be worth installing such a plant for a large block of plants but it would probably only supply enough electricity for one or two of the flats.

But on a farm scale it should work quite well as 'RM' from 200 cows & 500 pigs (& 2 or 3 humans) should easily produce enough electricity for 1 farmhouse and make a large dent in the cost of running a dairy.