A team from eco company BiogenGreenfinch believe that domestic and agricultural waste can provide half the U.K.’s gas needs by 2020.

They are pioneers in a technique which converts everyday waste into biomethane gas via the process of anaerobic digestion.

The technique of using anaerobic digestion to convert waste has of course been around for many years, indeed, one of the first recorded uses was in 1895 when gas lamps in Exeter were powered by a sewage sludge digestor which produced biogas.

Rotting waste, especially from food, creates a gas which can be captured in an enclosed system. Naturally, this gas would usually escape into the atmosphere, but within the enclosed system, it gets siphoned off and stored for later use. The waste which remains from the process is then spread back on to agricultural land for fertilising crops. This completes a cycle which will have enormous benefits for mankind believes BiogenGreenfinch.

What is so exciting about the process is that biomethane is suitable to be pumped straight into the main gas grid. And once the system is fully functional, it will be used to power homes and factories, and used in gas fired electric power stations.

And as well as food waste and human sewage waste, farm by-products such as pig slurry and crop waste can all be used in anaerobic digestors.

BiogenGreenfinch is already actively operating in London, taking 5,000 tonnes of food waste from the Borough of Ealing. Other contracts are in the pipeline with Richmond and Hounslow boroughs.

And there is plenty of waste to convert. The recently created London Waste Recycling Board estimated that London alone produces nearly three million tonnes of waste a year and 40% still goes to landfill sites.

So, with so much waste around in the U.K., it has been calculated that if it were all recycled in advanced anaerobic digestors, then the amount of biomethane produced could replace half of the gas needed for the second quarter of the 21st century.

Guest Article by Neil Camp