eli5 Could we replace normal gas with biogas?

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I was watching a video about New York sewage water systems and how they extract biogas from the waste to power nearby buildings? If we would invest more money on to that kind of system, could it replace natural gas demand that there is (example in Germany)?

Sorry my English, not a native speaker.

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Yes we could actually, but not as a “Fix everything” solution.

The biggest sources of biogas would be human waste, animal farts/burps/waste, and landfills.

Interestingly, the methane produced from these sources is a MASSIVE PROBLEM, as methane is a powerful greenhouse gas. You might have noticed those tall towers at various fuel plants and such just burning like a candle? That’s just them burning off the waste methane (turning it to CO2 and Water) to prevent it from escaping and contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. (Methane is many times more potent as a greenhouse has than CO2).

So what people are doing is capturing escaping methane from sewage treatment, animal processing facilities and landfills and yes, they are finding ways to generate power locally, like powering the farm the cows live on or nearby buildings.

I think ultimately, it’s hard to do because those facilities are really *large* so you’d need a massive system to collect the gas, store it, transport it, etc. And in the end you basically just have a moderately polluting fuel that can be produced cheaper and easier via fossil fuel production.

I think the consensus is that, both in terms of cost, development time, effort, etc. would be better to find ways to reduce the production of biogas directly (different feed for cows, compost in lieu of landfills, etc) and switch away from combustible fossil fuels and go either nuclear or renewable for our energy needs.

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