Here's another way to keep up with the booming biogas markets and technologies: visit our Video Center to view news and demonstrations of innovations like this wastewater plant that turns kitchen grease Into biogas.

This well-produced video from Chevron Energy Solutions, a unit of Chevron Corporation, and the City of Millbrae, California documents Millbrae's Water Pollution Control Plant, which transforms inedible kitchen grease from restaurants into biogas that provides electricity and heat to treat the city's wastewater.

The San Francisco Bay area city spent more than $5.5 million for new equipment and upgrades but the project pays for itself in energy cost savings and fees collected from restaurant waste haulers. This single facility reduces greenhouse gases by 1.2 million pounds a year. It’s a small plant in a huge market for renewable energy sources that actually save taxpayers money. According to the video, US restaurants generate an average of 14 pounds of grease per person per year. That’s 4.2 billion pounds of potential energy that’s largely left untapped and going to landfills where it releases methane into the atmosphere.

When you visit the Video Center, here are some links and keywords that you can use in the site’s search feature:
 
Keyword search for "cogeneration" 
 
Keyword search for "biogas" 

If you have a video about biogas or cogeneration (or other relevant topic) that you’d like to add to this site, see these instructions on how to upload your own video. It's free.

Don Dunnington
Blog Moderator

If you're visiting regularly or subscribed to the RSS feed from our Industry News Center, then you've seen this report on the booming biogas market. 
 
Biogas power plants combine anaerobic digestion systems with electric generators. The electricity they produce is considered renewable or green energy and can be sold into the national grid. In addition to wastewater treatment plants, biogas cogeneration has been employed in industrial processing applications, landfill and agriculture.

According to the Helmut Kaiser Consultancy, "The future increase use of biogas is a strong goal in most countries, not only because is it a renewable energy source but it will help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, water pollution and soil degradation…."  The firm's study is the first global inventory of biogas plants in 50 countries, with estimates of market potential and projected developments to 2030.

Keeping up with Biogas and all the industry news is made easier thanks to this site's Industry News Center. Publisher Joe Taylor monitors the full spectrum of industry news and selects only the most salient items for inclusion.

Taylor told me he's seen an increasing number of news stories about the use of biogas as an energy source and a growing number of equipment manufacturers offering biogas/methane cogeneration solutions for wastewater facilities. "About a year ago we added a new section to our Buyers Guide and Industry Directory for Cogeneration using biogas/methane," he said. You can visit this section here. If your company provides equipment and services for cogeneration, you can add your company's link to our directory here.

Don Dunnington
Moderator