Ageing equipment at the Athlone, Cape Town sewerage works is allowing enormous quantities of methane to escape into the atmosphere, where its global warming effect is about 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
The amount of methane emitted every day from Athlone is roughly equivalent to the amount of carbon dioxide a middle-income family of four would emit from electricity use over eight years.
Or the amount of carbon dioxide emitted from one car travelling around the circumference of the Earth - twice.
And because of budget constraints, it appears that this climate-changing methane will continue to pour into the air for the next three years - in a city which has a climate change strategy in place.
The amount of methane generated daily is equivalent in global warming effect to about 30 tons of carbon dioxide.
Energy expert Alastair Gets said on Monday it was “very serious” to have this amount of methane going into the air.
“The best solution would be to capture the methane and use it to power a generator, which could contribute a large amount of that plant’s electricity demand.
“At a very minimum, it should be flared (burned),” he said.
Mark Borchers of Sustainable Energy Africa, said: “As a city with an energy and climate change strategy, I’m pretty sure they would want to do something about it right now,” adding that he would try to facilitate a solution.
Ossie Asmal, director of the city’s environmental planning, said he was aware of the problem and was encouraging all departments to reduce their carbon footprint.
Kevin Samson, manager of the city’s wastewater department, said the anaerobic digesters at Athlone had been built in the 1950s and had reached “the end of their economical life”.
The poor condition of the digesters’ roofs meant it was no longer possible to capture the methane gas produced.
Any attempt to effect temporary repairs would be a waste, Samson said.
The recent allocation of funds would be spent on addressing the handling of sludge.
Samson said that over the next three years the digesters would be replaced with different equipment which would do away with the need for the outdated system. - Cape Times
The amount of methane emitted every day from Athlone is roughly equivalent to the amount of carbon dioxide a middle-income family of four would emit from electricity use over eight years.
Or the amount of carbon dioxide emitted from one car travelling around the circumference of the Earth - twice.
And because of budget constraints, it appears that this climate-changing methane will continue to pour into the air for the next three years - in a city which has a climate change strategy in place.
The amount of methane generated daily is equivalent in global warming effect to about 30 tons of carbon dioxide.
Energy expert Alastair Gets said on Monday it was “very serious” to have this amount of methane going into the air.
“The best solution would be to capture the methane and use it to power a generator, which could contribute a large amount of that plant’s electricity demand.
“At a very minimum, it should be flared (burned),” he said.
Mark Borchers of Sustainable Energy Africa, said: “As a city with an energy and climate change strategy, I’m pretty sure they would want to do something about it right now,” adding that he would try to facilitate a solution.
Ossie Asmal, director of the city’s environmental planning, said he was aware of the problem and was encouraging all departments to reduce their carbon footprint.
Kevin Samson, manager of the city’s wastewater department, said the anaerobic digesters at Athlone had been built in the 1950s and had reached “the end of their economical life”.
The poor condition of the digesters’ roofs meant it was no longer possible to capture the methane gas produced.
Any attempt to effect temporary repairs would be a waste, Samson said.
The recent allocation of funds would be spent on addressing the handling of sludge.
Samson said that over the next three years the digesters would be replaced with different equipment which would do away with the need for the outdated system. - Cape Times
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