Probably few would imagine that elements as different and everyday as grape skins, human urine and excrement, and rain could generate energy. But today this is a complete reality. Imagination, when it comes to producing electricity, can do anything. Innovative and, above all, environmentally sustainable methods that reflect a healthy trend that is here to stay.

Innovative forms of generation: Energy without limits

When in the late 18th century the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta first identified methane (CH4) as the flammable gas in bubbles emerging from swamps, he did not imagine how important this gas would become for human society in the centuries to come.

During World War II, methane became especially important due to fuel shortages. This is how new sources of energy began to be generated, which have grown steadily until today.

At the beginning of the 1960s, the technology for the production of biogas from cattle manure was greatly promoted with the dual purpose of using it as energy and obtaining a biofertilizer. Today, biogas is used worldwide as a fuel source for both industrial and domestic use. So much so that its exploitation has helped drive sustained economic development and has provided a renewable energy source as an alternative to coal and oil.

In fact, a United Nations (UN) study indicates that by 2025, more than 100,000 biogas plants will have been built worldwide. And Chile is no exception.

Faced with a scenario in which the threat of energy shortages seems to be gaining strength, imagination must be awakened and every effort must be made to make up for the effects of this scenario through more innovative, environmentally friendly and sustainable generation sources.

Not surprisingly, Chile is undergoing a true energy revolution, according to Rodrigo Jiménez, general manager of the consulting firm Systep. “In the last 10 years, the country has experienced a great growth in the development of NCRE plants in general, increasing from 242 MW of installed capacity in 2007 to 3,332 MW as of September this year in the SIC,” the executive explained.

The Chilean Energy Efficiency Agency (AChEE), for its part, is working to massify technologies such as cogeneration through the use of biogas. “Particularly from the Agency we are focused on promoting not only the generation of energy based on clean and sustainable energy, but also the implementation of measures to ensure the efficient use of energy,” says Juan Pablo Payero, head of the Industry and Mining Development Line of AChEE.

Beginning to undertake

On the other side of the continent, in countries such as Japan or Germany, the introduction of “waste to energy” has prevailed, that is, to convert as much waste as possible into energy, reducing its volume, in addition to minimizing the community’s contact with the waste, transforming it into raw material for new processes, an area where Chile is taking its first steps.

According to Raimundo Bordagorry, an academic at the Center for Energy and Sustainable Development at the Universidad Diego Portales, Chile needs more entrepreneurs to dare to develop new ways of producing energy. But there are factors that work against this purpose.

“The lack of R&D departments in companies, the need for a greater contribution to applied research by universities, the lack of access to specific financing programs for the sector, the deterioration of the country’s technological industrial development in general, among other aspects, all work against the implementation of ingenious initiatives for energy production,” explains the specialist.

Despite this scenario, local companies and entrepreneurs have bet on using different types of elements to generate energy, such as grape skins, urine and human excrement and rain, which might seem unthinkable sources of generation for the common people, but today they are already a complete reality.

In the following pages we will review some of these innovative power generation projects, which are already making waves in the changing and increasingly creative national energy scenario.

Wine residues for energy use

Energy efficiency, renewable energies and the problem of waste are part of the strategic guidelines of several companies. After identifying the importance of these concepts, Viña San Pedro incorporated them into its sustainability plans.

Thus, in 2009 BioG and Viña San Pedro embarked on the search for a solution to the management of grape harvest residues, such as those from vine pruning and grape skins, which are used as a source of energy for the wine production processes.

Both companies worked for two years to find a way to implement the project, for which they created a business model in which BioG made the investment in the biogas plant, providing a waste management service with a contract for the sale of the energy produced. This determined that Viña San Pedro currently has installed the first biogas plant in Latin America with organic waste from the wine industry.

“The project is an opportunity to demonstrate that it is possible to bring companies closer to a circular economy, making use of their organic waste to generate energy. Particularly at Viña San Pedro, this waste returns to the vineyard in the form of organic fertilizer for its soils,” says Matías Errázuriz, BioG’s general manager.

The plant currently accumulates waste in silage bags, thus maintaining constant energy production throughout the year.

In this way, thermal energy is transported as hot water over a distance of 2 km and delivered to the vineyard for its thermal processes in winemaking, while electrical energy is delivered directly to the internal lines of Viña San Pedro. The plant operates automatically and the process can be controlled remotely.

The biogas plant will generate 60% of the vineyard’s annual electrical and thermal energy needs, equivalent to the consumption of 3,200 homes in a month.

BioG’s executive also highlights that the plant will generate energy uninterruptedly, so all the electric energy not consumed by Viña San Pedro, “will be injected directly to the Central Interconnected System (SIC), providing clean energy for the country”, adds the company’s representative.

Human waste to generate energy?

It may seem strange, but as you can read, the idea that human waste (such as urine and excrement) can be used as heat energy or to light the home, is already a reality in the commune of Vilcún, in the Araucanía Region.

It was in 2010 when officials of the municipality of Vilcún presented in society the first biodigester capable of converting human excrement and urine into biogas for the use of stoves and heaters in homes. The device, unique in Chile and Latin America at the time, was developed by George Martinez Arriagada and his company Metalglass, an expert in metal and fiberglass structures.

But the development of this prototype was not easy. There were months of study and testing since the project was approved and financed by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in conjunction with the European Union (EU), the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Municipality of Vilcún.

How does it work? The system connects the latrine directly to a catalytic converter that decants liquid and solid waste into methane gas, which is stored in a 200-liter tank that supplies the resource to the house through pipes.

This instrument has been installed for some time in the house of a family living in the Quintrilpe sector, in the Vilcún commune, and its benefits are evident: they no longer consume liquefied gas or firewood for cooking or heating; their groundwater is free of contamination and flies and bad odors have disappeared from their property.

“The good thing is that this system is always providing gas unless it is intervened by chemical liquids such as chlorine or other elements. It only uses human guano. In addition, the cost of the system is very cheap and the benefits are permanent over time,” says the creator of this innovative project, George Martinez. This initiative promises to set a trend and generate an energy revolution in the field of waste recycling in the country.

Rain and energy, a novel combination

It was in 2014 when, in the framework of the 6th Energy Month Seminar “Technological Innovation in Energy”, a group of students from the University of Valparaiso won second place thanks to an innovative project, in a contest organized by the College of Engineers.

Patricio Pizarro, Cristian Valenzuela, Matías Padilla, Enrique Pardo, Francisco Fredes, Ignacio Villarroel and Ignacio Apablaza are the students of the School of Industrial Civil Engineering of this university who were recognized thanks to the “Water Light” project, which consists of using rainwater to store energy.

Matías Padilla, one of the students in charge and manager of the project, explains that they thought of using rain as a natural phenomenon, so they designed a mechanism where rainwater would be stored in a pond located on the roofs of the houses, and through a pipe with an integrated Pelton turbine, the water that descends would begin to generate the hydraulic energy necessary to generate electricity.

The student emphasized that the idea was born with the objective of saving costs in the buildings, since several of the members of the group live in apartments and the common expenses are very high. “By carrying out this project, we were able to establish that we could reduce the building’s electricity bills by 10 to 15%,” he said.

They also won third place in a competition organized by Capel related to innovation. Today, the members of the project are finishing their university studies, but they hope to be able to count on the necessary resources to develop this project.