Biomethane or hydrogen, a “green” energy source obtained from renewable resources such as wastewater and sewage sludge, can become an important cornerstone of the energy transition. This can be achieved by coupling wastewater and waste management with the transport, building/heating or industrial sectors.

At Berlin’s sewage treatment plants, biogas is produced from sewage sludge which is currently used by cogeneration plants for energy and heat production on-site. However, the excess heat generated during this process gets lost, and the climate protection benefits are limited due to increased integration of renewable energy into the grid power mix. In the future, the potential of these “green gases” for climate protection could be fully tapped if biogas and other energy sources derived from wastewater or waste streams were used in the transport, industrial and heat supply sectors in buildings.

In the recently launched “Green Gas” project” (BENE #1292-B5-O), the KWB will develop various scenarios for viable sector coupling in cooperation with Berliner Wasserbetriebe, Berliner Stadtwerke and Veolia Deutschland and evaluate them in terms of their technical, economic and ecological benefits. Project leader Dr. Christian Remy during an informal talk during one of the first project meetings: “We are looking forward to figuring out together with local companies what potential there is for the production of green gas in Berlin. Particularly in the fields of feat and transport, there is still a huge need to catch up in terms of climate protection. Wouldn’t it be great if one day Berliners could fuel their cars with green gas from the sewage treatment plant? ”