A water company had us all fooled today with their Skyship 600 series solely powered by gases extracted from customers′ poo.
Northumbrian Water may have had some of us fooled today with news of their Skyship. But they really are the only wastewater company in the UK to use 100% of its sewage sludge, the left over material at the end of the wastewater treatment process, and converting it into gas and electricity - so literally producing power from poo!
The industry-leading ‘Power from poo′ process has transformed sewage sludge from being a waste product that needed a lot of energy to clean up before it could return to the natural environment, into a fuel being used to produce green energy. The innovative process is cutting the company′s annual operating costs of around £9 million and delivering a significant cut of more than 20% in the company′s carbon footprint.
Northumbrian Water′s has a Water Ranger initiative which recently celebrated four years of volunteers helping them to protect and improve 56 of the region′s waterways which are more prone to pollution.
Water Rangers report on issues that are not the responsibility of Northumbrian Water such fly tipping, fallen trees, abandoned shopping trolleys, defects in footpaths and missing life buoys so that this information can be passed on to relevant authorities to deal with.
Wastewater Director, Richard Warneford, said: "We are incredibly proud of our power from poo approach and community initiatives and extremely pleased to be able to reduce the number of pollutions on the environment.
"The Water Rangers initiative has been hugely successful and on a number of occasions, has helped us spot and deal with potential threats to the environment at the earliest possible opportunity. We are incredibly proud of the initiative and everyone who is a part of it."
"Every year we are looking at new and innovative ways to reduce this and move even further with our innovations. I would like to encourage those wishing to find out more and share their ideas to check out the Innovation Festival."
Visit https://innovationfestival.org/ to keep up to date with announcements on Innovation Festival 19.