Cheap Heat? <Alternative Fuel Source>

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Back in Earth Science in the 9th grade I learned about how bio-waste produces methane in the correct conditions. However to the best of my knowledge this method of energy production is primarily used in developing countries and in rural areas, and even then it's only used in small home systems.

Basically the equation is: Waste + Micro Organisms - Oxygen = Methane (Natural Gas) + Fertilizer

So my question is this, if it's a good source of Natural Gas for home use in financially poor areas, then why don't we ALWAYS hook it up to our waste treatments plants? We could basically turn our sewage into organic fertilizer and Methane (which could be distributed to homes).

I know that it has been done, but that's only one of many methods in use today to get rid of human waste. And to the best of my knowledge it isn't widely used as a means of Natural Gas production.

Does anyone have any insight on this?

im not familiar with it but wouldnt that process take a considerable amount of time?

also wouldnt it be difficult to remove various chemicals that would negitivly affect the prosses?

On a large or small scale this could be done. but there are existing coal powered plants that do a good job and most important are in place and running. In the US there are lots of rules about how you can run a power plant. The company do not want to fix what they think is not broke or do not want to invest on other means of moving the turbines that run eletric power plants. Long term this can be fixed but for now large coal/nuclear/hydro powered will be used.

it's a matter of cost. If the cost of doing this vs. oil or natural gas (which is much the same thing) is cheaper, they'd be lining up. Getting a power plant built and set up takes almost a decade, so even if they're starting now (which some are), it's going to be awhile.

This should pick up in the future, might as well put it to work.

It's useful in some cases, the Chinese use pig waste to generate methane, but they already have the pigs right there. Mostly it just isn't worth the cost in western countries to capture and transport it, because the yield isn't that great.