Officials from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) are keen to see more waste used as a source for low-carbon heat.

The DECC is working on a new Heat and Energy Saving Strategy, which has been involved in an initial consultative period, and should be released in a more detailed version in the autumn. This will follow the government’s Renewable Energy Strategy which outlines the U.K.’s plan to reach its 15% renewable energy target by 2020.

The government is trying to marry the too much waste problem, with too little correct heat problem.

A number of solutions have been put forward, with one of the main contenders being the manufacture of biogas from waste, which is in turn cleaned and converted into biomethane, which can then be fed into the national gas grid. This method is very appealing to experts, as 90% of the country’s current domestic heating is provided by natural gas.

Experts explain that biogas has to be cleaned, because it consists of 65% methane and 35% carbon dioxide. When cleaned up into biomethance, it becomes about 90% methane, together the ethane and various other contaminants.

Cleaning biogas is regularly done in mainland Europe. The carbon dioxide has to be removed, as well as the hydrogen sulphide containments. The process is said to be no more complicated than cleaning natural gas from the North Sea before it enters the national grid.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

Related posts:

1. Heat Capture
2. District Heating Gets Thumbs Up
3. Get Digesting
4. Gas Absorption Heat Pump Solutions
5. Just Hot Air