Oslo has begun an experimental plant that recycles heat taken from sewage. Sewage comes into the system at about 9.6 C and is released at 5.7 C. The extracted heat is captured in a gas that is then compressed allowing it to heat freshwater from 52 C when it comes into the plant to 90 C when it is returned to the hot water system.
The prototype sewage heat pump plant cost about $13-million to construct and generates the equivalent of of 18 megawatts (MW), enough to heat 9,000 flats or save burning 6,000 tonnes of oil a year.
Only about a third of the heat energy is electricity used to run compressors and pumps. The remaining two-thirds of the heat energy comes directly from the sewage.
Reuters also reports that US scientists are working on a microbial fuel cell using sewage-eating bacteria to generate electricity.
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