Sewage no longer going to waste

Methane gas is collected from raw sewage at Whitlingham sewage works

A sewage plant in Norfolk is to generate more electricity from the waste it processes.

Anglian Water is installing a second methane gas powered generator to provide electricity to work pumps and motors at Whitlingham, near Norwich.

Sewage digesters capture methane gas from human waste, which is stored in tanks to run the generator engines.

The company said it is the first time a sewage plant in East Anglia has used the technique.

Leo Barnes, the sewage works manager, said nothing processed at the plant would go to waste, helping to meet changing rules and regulations.

He said: "We have to react to increasingly tight standards that are levied on us for the discharge into the River Yare, and we have to accommodate expansion in Norwich.

"It is one of the few sites in the country that removes phosphorous and nitrogen biologically as opposed to using chemicals to do it artificially."

Works manager Leo Barnes says they hope to meet their electricity demands

The technology is similar to that used in the World War II, when people used bags of pig slurry to run their cars.

Mr Barnes continued: "This plant produces about 11,000 to 12,000 cubic metres (423,776 cubic ft) a day from the sludge which we receive at the works.

"We're also commissioning a plant that will pre-treat the sludge, and it will enable us to double the amount of gas we get off and therefore vastly increase the amount of electricity we produce."