Poop power? Biogas facility to open in Richmond next month

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – A new effort to feed the power grid using the gas given off by human waste is expected to start production next month.

The Lulu Island Wastewater Treatment Plant in Richmond is designed to take what we all flush down the toilet, and add the methane gas it produces to the existing natural gas power infrastructure.

“This facility will produce enough renewable natural gas to heat more than 600 homes, and we anticipate that production will increase as the region’s population grows,” says Sav Dhaliwal, Chair of the Metro Vancouver Board of Directors.

Work on the new Biogas Cleanup System began last summer. Typically, gas from the treatment plant is used to power the plant itself, and any surplus is flared off. This new system purifies the excess biogas, which is then sold to FortisBC for use in its natural gas grid.

FortisBC is aiming to have biogas, or “Renewable Natural Gas”, make up 15 per cent of its overall natural gas supply by 2030 as part of a provincial transition to lower carbon energy options.

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