What kind of renewable energy source is being used?
False Creek, a neighbourhood in Vancouver, Canada, gets most of its heat energy from an unusual renewable source: sewage wastewater. Technology is used to capture heat from wastewater to warm homes in the area.
All the water from toilets and homes goes into the sewers. It's treated at a plant before being used again. However, heat generated by dishwashers or hot showers frequently goes unnoticed as it enters the sewer system.
Capturing heat from the sewer water is easy because it's enclosed, and the recovered heat doesn't have any smell. Under a Vancouver bridge, an energy centre is located above an existing sewage pumping station to capture the heat before it reaches the treatment plant.
What do we know about the energy centre?
False Creek Neighbourhood Energy Utility (NEU) warms buildings and provides hot water by capturing heat energy from sewage. The facility was started in 2010.
How does the False Creek Neighbourhood Energy Utility function?
In the first step, the heat energy is captured using a special system connected to a sewage pumping station in Vancouver. This makes up 70% of the utility's total energy production. The other 30% comes from natural gas boilers.
After that, pipes under the streets carry this heat energy, which is in the form of water, to different buildings in the area. Each building has special equipment to transfer this heat energy inside and give hot water and heat to the people living there. The heat from the wastewater flushed down the drain is returned to the sewer system and captured again for reuse.
Is this form of renewable energy source being used in other places?
In many towns and communities, the extra heat from the sewage system is recovered and reused.
In Sweden, district heating systems like False Creek's are common. Waste heat from various sources, including wastewater, is distributed in highly populated places. In Stockholm, Sweden, they even use sewage heat to make fuel for buses. This shows that this energy source can be used for different things.
