By: Johnn Jin

In Sydney a trial project adding fumes from decomposing wastewater into our gas supply is set to begin. At the Malabar Biomethane Plant in southeastern Sydney, they decompose waste and trap biogas. The gas from poop can even power the internet. Malabar director Frank Tudor called it a “potential game-changer for Australian energy.”

“We’re forming part of the circular economy,” Mr Tudor said. “The gas [from wastewater] that was otherwise just being produced and going to the atmosphere without doing any useful work, is now doing useful work.”

The annual gas consumption has around 6,300 households using biomethane for cooking and heating, which would help lower Australia’s overall carbon emissions, although the reduction would be small at first, said Mr Tudor. There are similar studies in Europe that examine the use of biogas rather than natural gas, a nonrenewable fossil fuel.

An operation at Malabar is making Australian homes go all-electric. The challenge is underappreciated, said Mr Tudor. “There’s a lot of work to be done by households if they choose to migrate from gas to electricity. If we can offer them a choice that (they) can retain gas and it is renewable gas, we believe that there’s a multitude of benefits that come from that,” he said.