The Ostrava Water and Sewage Company produces biogas.
Ostrava Waterworks and Sewage released a very interesting article on their website about the production of biogas in a wastewater treatment plant.
How is biogas produced at the Central Waste Water Treatment Plant?
In the Ostrava region, there is an increasing number of companies that produce electricity or gas without harming the environment. Environmentalists welcome this. On one hand, the Ostrava region is often plagued by smog, but on the other hand, both people and companies here are increasingly implementing eco-friendly methods of energy production.
They do not only use clean natural resources such as sun or wind, but also waste or sludge.
"These are digestion tanks," says Kamil Šuraňová, head of the wastewater treatment plant technology center. The central wastewater treatment plant, operated by Ostrava Waterworks and Sewerage, transforms pollution in the incoming wastewater into biogas as part of its treatment technology. They produce electricity and heat from it. They process about forty thousand tons of sludge here annually. They collect it in three digestion tanks, where it decomposes for 25 to 30 days at temperatures similar to the human body. While the residual digested sludge is mechanically dewatered, mixed with lime, and used in reclamation, the biogas produced during the decomposition of sludge is collected in a gas holder.
"We produce electricity from biogas in cogeneration units, with heat being a secondary product," explains Kamila Šuraňová. Electricity is generated by 2 cogeneration units, with a total capacity of 800 kilowatts per hour, and she adds that the cogeneration units work on the principle of a combustion engine. The heat is utilized for technology heating. Currently, we are self-sufficient in electricity production by approximately 40% and entirely self-sufficient in heat production.