We Could Power Our Homes With Food Scraps. Here’s What’s Stopping Us
From singularityhub.com
2021-08-26 14:00:15
Dr. Ananya Mukherjee
Excerpt:
Imagine if you could power your kettle using the energy generated from the vegetable cuttings quietly breaking down in your kitchen’s compost bin. That reality might not be so far off with the growth of biogas technology.
Biogas is a green alternative to fossil fuels that not only helps to reduce toxic emissions but also provides cheap, clean energy. It’s made up of a mixture of methane, carbon dioxide and a little hydrogen sulfide and water vapor, all of which is produced by microbes that live on organic raw material within a airtight digester container….
People we spoke to were concerned that local digesters would produce a nasty smell, or that their industrial appearance would blight the landscape. In fact, many digesters are fairly small, and would only produce smells if the system broke down.
Other stumbling blocks include a lack of technical expertise in building or maintaining digesters, a lack of incentives to attract local businesses, and the high cost of the digester, which, depending on its size, can cost between £12,000 and £158,000.