Ecotricity delivers biogas produced from sewage and food waste

UK households can now register to Ecotricity’s new tariff to purchase biogas as a way of cutting landfill waste and reducing their carbon footprint. The green initiative will be the first for environmentally conscious consumers who had in the past only been able to obtain green electricity from suppliers.

Dale Vince, the green company’s founder, warned that natural gas sourced from the overseas, like Russia, is expected to run out 15 to 20 years from now. Ecotricity is now kick-starting the market to help shift the country from brown to green gas.

Households who signed up the Ecotricity deal will be provided with gas in January next year, although their supply will initially come from the usual brown natural gas. A percent of the biogas supply will only be introduced into the national grid later in the year.

Energy expert Audrey Gallacher of Consumer Focus, a government-supported watchdog, said that green gas tariffs could be beneficial for consumers who want to use environmentally friendly energy. Meanwhile, the National Grid supports Ecotricity’s plan of using renewable gas to reduce carbon gas emissions.

Ecotricity informed that the UK throws away about 18 million tonnes of food waste annually, which is enough to generate biogas to heat 700,000 homes.

Biogas is generated in anaerobic digesters. Raw materials, like food waste and sewage, are fed into tanks where microbes break them down without oxygen, and release carbon dioxide and methane – the main components of biogas. The green gas can then be utilized to generate electricity, or as Ecotricity plans, delivered into the pipelines of a gas network.