Biogas
Biogas is a gaseous renewable energy source[1] produced from raw materials such as agricultural waste, manure, municipal waste, plant material, sewage, green waste, wastewater, and food waste. Biogas is produced by anaerobic digestion with anaerobic organisms or methanogens inside an anaerobic digester, biodigester or a bioreactor.[2] The gas composition is primarily methane (CH
4) and carbon dioxide (CO
2) and may have small amounts of hydrogen sulfide (H
2S), moisture and siloxanes. The methane can be combusted or oxidized with oxygen. This energy release allows biogas to be used as a fuel; it can be used in fuel cells and for heating purpose, such as in cooking. It can also be used in a gas engine to convert the energy in the gas into electricity and heat.[3]
After removal of carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide it can be compressed in the same way as natural gas and used to power motor vehicles. In the United Kingdom, for example, biogas is estimated to have the potential to replace around 17% of vehicle fuel.[4] It qualifies for renewable energy subsidies in some parts of the world. Biogas can be cleaned and upgraded to natural gas standards, when it becomes bio-methane. Biogas is considered to be a renewable resource because its production-and-use cycle is continuous, and it generates no net carbon dioxide. From a carbon perspective, as much carbon dioxide is absorbed from the atmosphere in the growth of the primary bio-resource as is released, when the material is ultimately converted to energy.
Mountsorrel is a village in Leicestershire on the River Soar, just south of Loughborough with a population in 2001 of 6,662 inhabitants,[1][2] increasing to 8,223 at the 2011 census.[3]
The village is in the borough ofCharnwood, surrounding a steep hill, once crowned by a castle, and is bordered to the east by theRiver Soar.
The village is renowned for theButtercrossMarket in the village centre as well as itsgranitequarry, the largest in Europe. TheLeicesterarm of theGrand Union Canalruns through Mountsorrel.
The civil parish meets with Rothley to the south, and some houses are actually in Rothley parish near the southern A6 junction. To the west of the parish is a nature reserve. North of here, theLeicestershire Roundpasses east–west through the north of the village. The parish boundary meets Quorndon where it first meets the quarry near Buddon Wood. North of there, it crosses the former A6, 500 metres (1,600 ft) towards Quorn from the roundabout for the A6 roundabout. Close to the bypass, theRiver Soarbecomes the parish boundary and south of the A6 northern junction it meetsSilebyat the point where it crosses the A6 bypass. Five hundred metres (one thousand six hundred feet) south of there, the boundary leaves the river to the west, with the river becoming the Sileby-Rothley boundary.