Unlike many of the other renewable energy systems that could be used in this community, biogas deals with the human waste that the community produces. There are many rules that need to be followed to ensure that the waste is processed to a satisfactory standard. Unfortunately these regulations can restrict the efficiency of the system. However, there are some benefits in that a lot of these processes have already been carried out to maintain sanitation standards. This can help to cover the cost of supplying a waste stream to an anaerobic digester.
There are various ways of dealing with sewage and organic waste. It can be dumped in landfill, incinerated, composted, or used in an anaerobic digester. Each of these systems has its merits and each has been used throughout the world. However, when considering the disposal of the human and food waste it was decided to be best to focus on using anaerobic digestion. This is because anaerobic digestion turns the organic content of the waste into a gas, which can be used in an electrical generation system that can be easily dispatched (turned off and on) to generate power on demand for the surrounding community to use. The system can also process waste with high water content and its by-products can be used as fertiliser.