Rose Lapp (Reporter)
A PLANT in Andalucia will be the first in the world to convert sewage into clean fuel for vehicles.
A waste-water plant in Chiclana de la Frontera, Cadiz, is using sunlight to create algae before turning the green substance into gas.
The project, dubbed All-gas, is part of a €12 million plan to produce alternative energies and reduce Spain’s reliance on foreign oil.
While factories and mills have long produced waste-water gas for their own energy needs, All-gas is the first to produce the bio-fuel with the intention of exporting it to power vehicles.
“Nobody has done the transformation from waste-water to bio-fuel, which is a sustainable approach,” said All-gas project leader Frank Rogalla.
The plant, owned by water company Aqualia, is still in its pilot phase at just 200 metres squared.
All-gas expects to be producing €100,000 of bio-fuel a year by 2015 however, enough to power 200 cars or ten trucks for the year.
Although researchers have said it may take years before algae bio-fuel is economically viable on a large scale, they have admitted the project will be able to replace a portion of Spain’s petroleum use.
Project leader, Rogalla, is optimistic however: “The opportunity is such that 40 million people, roughly the population of Spain, would be able to power 200,000 vehicles from just flushing their toilet!” he said.
Fantastic…this is the way to go for Spain/Andalusia!
Progress in the right direction but it’s unlikely to get the funding it needs to develop long-term.
Quite right Boulder. There’s no way the monster fossil-fuel companies, with their power, will allow this on any large scale.
One year ago Themes Water did the same – for only 1.5 million quid.
“https://www.thameswater.co.uk/about-us/14556.htm”
Technology tried and tested AND published !
So spain only needs 12million from the EU to start a trial ?
But hey, it was clever of chiclana to use the river to transport all that sewage. they must have planned this for decades…