Poo power heats homes

How do you heat your house? Using electricity or gas central heating? Some homeowners in Didcot have been using something a bit closer to home...

Up to 200 homes in Oxfordshire will soon be using gas which has been made from their own 3 week-old poo! The whole process takes about 20 days to convert sewage from the householder's toilets to bio-gas.

The sludge is heated in large vats in a process called anaerobic digestion. This is when bacteria breaks down the sludge, making a gas called biomethane as a by-product. The gas is treated for impurities, and then it is fed back into the national grid.

If the scheme is successful, there are plans to do this all across the country.

Toilet

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