World’s first partially POO-POWERED city will burn smelly sewage gas to fuel water purification plant
Danish town of Aarhus set to use human waste to satisfy growing demand for electricity
A CITY will become the first in the world to provide its citizens with fresh water using only energy from household sewage.
More than 200,000 people living in the city of Aarhus in Denmark will be drinking water through a system powered by the Marselisborg treatment plant.
It generates energy from the biogas created out of household wastewater, including sewage, which is pumped into digesters kept at 38°C and filled with bacteria.
The resulting biogas – mostly methane – is then burned to make heat and electricity, the reports.
An alternative form of organic bacteria is used to filter polluted materials from the sewage water.
RELATED STORIES
The Marselisborg plant can now generate more than 150 per cent of its electricity after a £2.5 million investment, which means the surplus can be used for pumping drinking water.
The plant is the first anywhere to produce more than 50 per cent more energy than it consumes, claimed the country's Ministry of Environment and Food.
Environment Minister Eva Kjer Hansen told the: "Treatment plants must move forward from being energy guzzlers to being energy producers, and we have a really good example of this here."
Other cities including Copenhagen, Chicago and San Francisco are said to be considering using energy from sewage to power water supplies.
According to IEA’s World Energy Outlook 2016, the amount of energy used in the water sector will more than double over the next 25 years.
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4368