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Poopy power: Britain's first commercial venture to convert dog mess



A revolutionary renewable power scheme dubbed 'Poopy Power' could provide cheap heat for Britain, it emerged today.

Britain's first commercial-scale venture to convert canine excrement into bio-gas that can be used to power a turbine is set be unveiled after three years of development work.

Flintshire-based firm Streetkleen is the brainchild of Gary Downie, a former Manhatten banker now living in Cheshire, who has persuaded an unnamed English local authority to get involved.



Creating a stink: How former banker Gary Downie's revolutionary dog waste system works



The system converts canine excrement left in bins into bio-gas that can be used to power a turbine (file picture)

The council is in final negotiations to adopt the revolutionary Streetkleen Bio system which could be rolled out as soon as July.

Councils spend £72.5million a year sending Britain's annual mountain of 700,000 tonnes of dog waste to landfill sites.




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In London, borough councils spend £9.5million annually on sending waste from the capital's 800,000 dogs to landfill.

But under the proposed green energy scheme some of that will be sent to digesters capable turning the waste into methane, CO2 and fertiliser.




Gary Downie, who came up with the idea, aims to collect four tons a day of waste, which will be broken down by microorganisms and turned into power

Mr Downie, 42, designed the self-contained system capable of powering up to 60 homes at a time.

Despite using animal faeces, Mr Downie insists it is odour free and can operate on as little as 500kg of waste a day, generating 200,000 kilowatt hours of electricity a year.

He said every tonne of excrement kept out of landfill will displace 450kg of greenhouse gases.

He expects to make money by charging a fee to process the waste, along with income from National Grid feed-in tariffs for its electricity.

Mr Downie told MailOnline: 'People already understand the ideas behind this and why it is necessary to do it so it is an easy step.

Mr Downie added: 'There has been a lot of interest and we're talking to councils now in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.'

Mr Downie, who spent a decade working for Investec on the oil and gas markets, came up with the idea when he became fed up of pushing his baby's pushchair along streets and parks covered in dog mess.

His system uses anaerobic digestion - using micro-organisms to break down organic material in the absence of oxygen - to produce a mixture of methane and CO2.

The system will remove the waste from plastic bags used to pick it up using an automated system and then pass it through to a digester tank.

The bio-gas will then be used to power a turbine generating electricity, while the heat and CO2 will be fed into an adjoining commercial greenhouse to grow plants with the help of a pasteurised bio-fertiliser resulting from the remains of the waste.

Mr Downie added: 'We're going to grow Christmas trees, which can be donated to schools each year and then returned to the greenhouse so they can grow up with the child.'

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