Sewage power plan

The company has applied for planning permission to install a combined heat and power unit at the plant on Ford Aerodrome.

Its planning agent, Gavin Bayfield, says in a statement: “Biogas is a naturally occurring by-product of the digestion process at sewage treatment centres.

“The biogas is presently used to fuel hot water boilers which in turn heat the digesters and the excess biogas, which is the majority, is flared off.”

The proposed unit will turn this biogas into electricity for the treatment works. Any surplus will be sold to the National Grid.

This will be a more effective way to dispose of liquid slurry which requires considerable heat to be fully treated, he states, and counts as a renewable energy.