Once a new renewable natural gas facility is completed in Virginia Beach, the flush of a toilet could help power homes across the Hampton Roads region, developers say.
Hampton Roads Sanitation District has partnered with Virginia Natural Gas, who provides power for about 315,000 homes in the area, to build technology that captures the gas that emanates off of wastewater when it is treated.
Currently, biogas is created during normal wastewater treatment operations called anaerobic digestion, when organisms break biosolids down without oxygen. Once the gas is produced, a flare is used to burn off the methane, CO2 and other gases…