British homes could soon be heated by gas produced from cow manure and sewage slurry, under plans being considered by Centrica, the owner of British Gas.

The company, which has 16 million UK customers, is drawing up plans to build a plant that would use organic waste to produce biomethane that could be injected directly into the national gas network. National Grid has estimated that such biogas could supply 18 per cent of total UK demand for gas — or 18 billion cubic meters of the approximately 100 billion total consumed in Britain every year.

A spokesman for Centrica said that biogas was an “interesting technology” and that it was studying the option of constructing a plant in Britain that would process an array of materials, from abattoir and farm waste to municipal food waste.

John Baldwin, a biomethane consultant with CNG Services, which is advising Centrica, said that the industry remained “embryonic” in the UK but was well advanced in continental countries. However, he said that the economics of British biomethane production would be transformed in April 2011, when the Government begins a subsidy scheme called the Renewable Heat Incentive.

By the end of this year, the Government is poised to set a premium that will be paid to biomethane producers from 2011, potentially unleashing a flood of investment into the industry.

About 15,000 cars in Sweden use the fuel, which is available in filling stations.

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