Scientists at the University of Nevada are pioneering a technology that turns sewage waste into clean, renewable energy. They hope to first power sewage treatment facilities, and eventually entire cities, with the waste.
Metropolises
like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago may soon be powered by
what you flushed down the toilet the night before. Scientists at the University of Nevada are about to go public
with technology that turns ugly sewage-waste sludge into clean, renewable
energy.
Sewage
treatment plants, like the one pictured, consume large amounts of energy by
cleaning and trucking away sludge (source: Sydney Water).
The
process is simple. Take sludge, dry it, compact it and then use it to power the
power-sucking treatment facility. The benefits to this common-sense approach
are twofold. Not only does the treatment center get off the grid for good, but
it also lowers its carbon footprint by not having to truck away metric tons of
sludge every year. However, powering your local treatment facility is only the
first step.
The minds
behind this green (and brown) approach have their sights set on powering entire
cities with sewage sludge. It is estimated that the state of California alone donates enough
sludge to treatment facilities all over the Golden State to create 10 million
kilowatt hours each and every day. Researchers believe that combining this kind
of abundant energy resource with other clean energies, such as solar and wind, could
be the recipe for weaning people off of the other gooey black stuff once and
for all. Who knew we had the power to break our addiction to oil inside of us
all along?
Best of
all, the infrastructure to do all of this is already in place. We don't have to
build massive collection and channeling facilities because they already exist.
Hardly any new building at all would need to be done. The biggest problem,
according to industry experts, is getting over the "ick factor" of
powering our lives with sewage. Once this, well, passes, we can get on with
getting over oil for good.
A user comment on this articlePosted on: 08-09-10 | By: AnonymousThis is the same technique farmers have been using for years. they use the methane of the cow manure to porvide power to their farms. This is a good step in the right direction as long as it does not cost more to produce the fule compared to the energy released from it.
NumbersPosted on: 08-04-10 | By: Dan M10 million Kwhr per day--- 3650 million Kwhrs per year produced pretty good but use in california 235,438 million Kwhrs. So sludge could possibly supply 1.6 percent of requirements! something, yes but 'big deal'? not really.
A user comment on this articlePosted on: 08-03-10 | By: Dave GreenfieldDetails on the exact process are sketchy, but here’s bit more for you. This is an experimental carbon-neutral system that processes 20 pounds of sludge per hour, drying it at modest temperatures into solid fuel. The fuel is then analyzed to see if it’s suitable for fuel through gasification and ultimately converted to electricity. They’re still looking at a demo unit (about the size of a refrigerator) that researchers will use to determine the right conditions for a commercial operation
Bull S**t!!!Posted on: 08-03-10 | By: Ian BBrilliant concept!
At the other end of the scale, a colleague of mine here in South Africa has developed a small methane digester made out of 3 discarded 44 gallon oil drums and some tubing. It takes the manure generated by 4 cattle and collected from their kraal each morning, and harvests enough methane to run a gas cooker for 3 hours.
The implications, if this could be taken to commercial production level, would be (a) to save rural African women the 3 to 4 hours spent each day searching for wood for their cooking fires, and (b) saving many thousands of trees that are 'sacrificed' for this purpose.
Any ideas how this could be rolled out? Mail me on falconian111@yahoo.com
Wake-up and smell the WHAT?Posted on: 08-02-10 | By: CompetSounds to me as though they are literally full of what they are attempting to recycle. The article would have been interesting had there been some clue as to the process by which waste would be utilized to generate power.
Silly ArticlePosted on: 08-02-10 | By: SkepticGet serious! This article implies that entire cities could be powered by their own waste. Journalistic license gone mad. I would seriously be surprised if even .1% of a city's power could be generated in this way. More likely, the sewage plant can at least be self powered and that is a good thing. Such hyperbole is simply silly!
Ick factor long gonePosted on: 08-02-10 | By: AnnealThe ick factor is long gone, many municipalities in AZ, CA etc use semi-treated waste water to irrigate lawns and gardens!, be careful when the sprinklers come on and you are picnicking! Others take extra steps to purify the irrigation water and then pump it back into aquifers where you guessed it, water is sourced!
Sludge is currently dried and used in various ways commercially in agriculture, construction industry, landscaping, and yes energy source.
Methane produced during the waste processing phase in the waste water treatment facilities is used by many institutions to power and heat the plant as well as some government facilities!
