Anaerobic digestion – extracting methane from organic wastes – doesn’t get the love of, say, solar and wind: it’s not nearly as sexy, and definitely more smelly. But it’s also a renewable energy technology with plenty of available feedstock: all of that food waste we discuss regularly could go towards the creation of biogas (assuming its no longer edible).
So, we’re happy to give this approach to clean energy another plug with the following infographic (courtesy of GTS Maintenance). I’m not sure I agree with some of the claims here about carbon dioxide – to my knowledge, the CO2 produced by burning methane is the same CO2 that comes from burning oil and coal – but methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas (20x the heat-trapping power of carbon dioxide), so anaerobic digestion is very helpful in terms of keeping it out of the atmosphere. And any business that produces organic wastes – from restaurants to entertainment venues – ought to consider this: it seems to me that it could be a really affordable means of powering at least part of your operation.
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This post is generously sponsored by GTS Maintenance.