We don’t usually think of sewage as a climate solution, but in Richmond, B.C., it’s powering homes and fighting emissions. At the Lulu Island Wastewater Treatment Plant, engineers and microbiologists have created a cutting-edge system that turns human waste into Renewable Natural Gas (RNG), and it's working.
By optimizing microbial communities in high-tech digesters, the facility produces 60,000 gigajoules of RNG annually, enough to heat 600 homes. Half of the biogas produced now fuels Lulu’s operations, while the rest, once flared off as waste, is upgraded and sold to utility provider FortisBC, generating nearly $1 million a year.
The project’s innovation lies in its patented Syntrophic Enrichment for Enhanced Digestion (SEED) bioreactor, which cultivates methanogen microbes to supercharge methane production. The new system, supported by a $11 million investment and a major RNG upgrade, has already reduced flaring by 61% and eliminated 2,500 tons of CO₂ emissions in its first year.
“This is about rethinking waste as a resource,” said Lillian Zaremba, the project’s lead engineer. “We’re capturing methane that would’ve been burned or lost, cleaning it, and putting it to work.”
As municipalities look for cost-effective paths to net-zero emissions, wastewater-to-biogas technology is quickly moving from pilot projects to mainstream infrastructure. Lulu Island proves the flush can fund the future—and that the journey to decarbonization may begin underground.
For Diamond Scientific, which provides gas measurement and environmental monitoring solutions, Lulu Island’s success is more than news, it’s a blueprint for scaling biogas from WWTPs across North America. With over 180 sewage treatment plants in Canada alone potentially able to replicate this model, the opportunity to turn waste into clean, local energy has never been more tangible.
