City Is Looking at Sewage Treatment as a Source of Energy

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/09/science/09sewage.html?_r=1&hpw

NYC has a huge sewer problem. It had a foul odor and contaminates waterways. They are trying to figure out a way to make these beneficial instead of just terrible. Their plan is to use the gas and by products of the waste water as an asset-more specifically as potential sources of renewable energy. But like other cities around the country looking to reduce both the costs of sewage treatment and disposal and the heat-trapping greenhouse gases emitted in the process, New York is beginning to look at its waste as an untapped resource. Sewage treatment plants can sell methane gas to provide energy for homes while heating fuel can be extracted from sludge and butanol, an alternative fuel to gasoline, from the algae generated by wastewater. These plans are more of a long-term solution that can lead to huge profits. New Yorkers currently produce some 1.3 billion gallons of wastewater daily. The agency is seeking vendors to find uses for the resulting daily yield of 1,200 tons of sludge, a residual that is currently sent to landfills in Suffolk County, N.Y., and Virginia. The biggest potential source of energy is the methane gas. They already use 20% but now they want to use half of gas produced which is burned off and wasted. The agency is also studying proposals for solar and wind projects on Staten Island. I believe this is a very good start to converting waste into something useful and benefical...if of course the process is enforced and used.