Semra Bakkaloglu is a Research Associate at the Imperial College of London. She recently showed in her research how the methane emissions along the biosolids supply chain were vastly underestimated and proposed straightforward actions to correct it swiftly.

Sure, wastewater treatment plants gobble a lot of energy. But if you equip them with sludge digesters, they also produce a good chunk of power in the form of biogas. 

So, when you do the exercise of a mass carbon balance over the sewage treatment chain, you don't get to zero yet. Still, you're not that far - even more so if you go for advanced biogas production approaches, such as the ones we've covered on that microphone with Cambi, EMG, or anytime soon, Anaergia, and yes, that's a spoiler.

Yet, there may well still be a silent killer in your plant. Because there's as much carbon in one molecule of carbon dioxide as in one molecule of methane. But releasing methane into the atmosphere has 27.2 times higher global warming potential! 

And as Semra demonstrated in her research, the total global biogas and biomethane emissions to the atmosphere today are about twice as high as previously estimated!

But where's that gas leaking from? Well, here again, Semra and her team looked into a full range of emitters to identify the culprits along the supply chain. And then again, they identified a subgroup of super-emitters responsible for 62% of the emissions.

Do you have one or several wastewater treatment plants within your area of responsibility? Then you'll want to double-check if you're not one of the bad pupils. And if you're a technology provider - be it in sensors or along the biosolids supply chain - it looks like the challenge you're solving just got twice more pressing. 

I'll leave the floor to Semra for you to get the entire story and the plentiful insights about the underlooked biosolids and biomass treatment chain in a second. Just allow me to remind you that, if you like what you hear, you can help me tremendously by sharing that content around you. 

Please tell your friends, colleagues, or LinkedIn network what surprised you in what Semra reveals today, and if you don't like what you hear, please reach out to me and tell me what I should be doing differently or better. Come on, do it, and I'll meet you on the other side. 

The Underestimated Hidden Threat of Biomethane Production. Time to Act?