Metro Vancouver Receives Federal, Provincial Funding For Lulu Island Sewage Heat Recovery Project
Jul 28, 2022
Vancouver, BC - A new project at Metro Vancouver’s Lulu Island Wastewater Treatment Plant will recover heat from treated sewage for use in plant operations, while increasing renewable natural gas production and helping to support regional climate action goals.
This clean energy initiative is possible thanks to support from the federal and provincial governments through the second intake of the CleanBC Communities Fund, under the green infrastructure stream of the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program.
"Generating clean, renewable energy from wastewater supports the targets set out in our regional climate strategy, Climate 2050," said Sav Dhaliwal, chair of Metro Vancouver’s Board of Directors. "We are grateful to our partners for their support as we strive to meet our goals, which align with those set out in federal and provincial plans, of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and achieving regional carbon neutrality."
Last year, Metro Vancouver completed the Lulu Island Renewable Natural Gas Facility, which allows the plant to clean and store biogas — a byproduct of the liquid waste treatment process — for use in the provincial natural gas system.
The natural gas facility cleans the biogas so that it can be sold as renewable natural gas, which blends seamlessly into existing gas infrastructure, and helps reduce net greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional natural gas.
Metro Vancouver has an agreement in place to sell renewable natural gas produced at the Lulu Island Wastewater Treatment Plant to FortisBC, who will deliver the renewable natural gas to its customers to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and help meet provincial climate action targets. Revenue from renewable natural gas sales is reinvested into projects that support wastewater resource recovery.