Residents in a picturesque town have become the first in Britain to receive mains gas – created from their own SEWAGE.
Around 200 residents in Didcot, Oxon., are receiving biomethane generated from waste flushed out of their own homes just three week earlier.
It is hoped the £2.5 million scheme will be rolled out across the country in a bid to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Human waste is treated at a sewage works to extract the water before the ‘sludge’ is sent to an ‘anaerobic digester’ where it is heated.
The heat causes bacteria to break down the sludge to create the biogas or biomethane.
This is then siphoned off and fed into a cleaning machine to get rid of any sewage odours before being piped back into people’s homes.
It takes around 23 days to complete the process which is currently producing enough gas for 200 homes.
The project is a joint venture between British Gas, Thames Water and Scotia Gas Networks.
The National Grid estimates that at least 15 per cent of homes could be supplied by renewable gas by 2020.
Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne said: ”It’s not every day that a Secretary of State can announce that, for the first time ever in the UK, people can cook and heat their homes with gas generated from sewage.
”This is a historic day for the companies involved, for energy from waste technologies, and for progress to increase the amount of renewable energy in the UK.”
