Heat from sewage could warm athletes’ village

German technology extracts energy from waste flow and pipes it to buildings

Vancouver is seriously looking at tapping into the city’s sewer system to heat the Olympic village’s buildings and water, Tom Osdoba, manager of the city’s sustainability group, told the Vancouver Board of Trade on Tuesday.

In developing the 32-hectare site in southeast False Creek, the city was looking for infrastructure that best balanced economics with environmental performance, Osdoba said in an interview after the meeting.

“When we balance that out, tapping the sewer to extract the heat out . . . is the best overall choice for that location,” he said.

Using sewage heat would work much like systems that heat buildings by taking warmth from the ground.

The system would involve using a sewer pipe that has heat exchange pipes inside. These collect the heat from the sewage and carry it off to a centralized heating system, which would distribute heat to buildings.

Vancouver Sun

[These heating systems do require electricity for the heat pumps, but recycle substantial amounts of waste heat from the sewers, and are more efficient than direct electric heating (25-33% of the electricity of conventional electric heat).
Also government report at: http://www.gvrd.bc.ca/air/pdfs/FeasStudySewerHeat.pdf]