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Slashing greenhouse gases will cost the City of Ottawa big money to upgrade special equipment that converts sewage gas into energy.

City council could be faced with a decision later this month on a staff recommendation to spend $57.2 million to swap out the “cogeneration” engines at the municipal sewage treatment plant, almost four times what it had been anticipating to spend on equipment improvements.

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The details of the proposal are in a report produced recently by city staff.

All the wastewater collected by municipal sewers is sent to the Robert O. Pickard Environmental Centre off Shefford Road in the east end. The plant treats about 415 million litres of wastewater each day before emptying the cleaned fluids into the Ottawa River. Methane is produced during the treatment process.

Instead of wasting the methane, the city in 1997 commissioned a $4.5-million cogeneration facility to capture the biogas, convert it into energy and help power the facility. It saved the city about one-quarter of its hydro bill each year and the savings increased over time, to the point where the initial project cost was made up after five years through the electricity savings.