Hamilton Globe - Hamilton, ON
Posted by: Bon Echo
N 43° 15.260 W 079° 46.170
17T E 599881 N 4789793
An oddly well-known local landmark
Waymark Code: WMTEPG
Location: Ontario, Canada
Date Posted: 11/12/2016
Views: 5
This local landmark is widely recognizable to many living in and around the Golden Horseshoe region. Known to many as the giant round tank painted like a globe, with "Hamilton" placed prominently on the map in 1.2-meter high letters. Now that's one way to get your city on the map!
But how many of the hundreds of thousands of passing motorist have any idea what the "big round tank" is used for? It's literally "full of gas", methane to be precise. It's collected from the adjacent municipal wastewater treatment plant (sewage treatment).
The following excerpts are from a story in the local Hamilton newspaper "The Spectator":
- It collects methane gas from the digestion of thousands of tonnes of sewage sludge at the city treatment plant
- the globe already helps the city make money — $1.1 million a year — thanks to a pair of award-winning, high-tech projects that turn methane into electricity and natural gas that is then sold to local utilities.
Source: http://www.thespec.com/news-story/5274988-gas-ball-will-hamilton-vanish-from-the-face-of-the-earth-/
More information about the gas storage tank and how it fits into "green energy":
Today, Hamilton operates three biogas-fueled cogeneration units producing a combined total of 4.8 MW of electrical power. The two additional cogeneration facilities installed at the city’s Glanbrook Landfill in 2008 collect methane gas generated by the decaying landfill waste, using the processed methane as fuel for powering plant electrical generation, and storing the surplus in a large gas-storage sphere that has become a Hamilton landmark viewable from the Burlington Skyway.
Source: https://www.partnersinprojectgreen.com/news/moving-from-cost-centre-to-profit-centre-hamilton-water/