Wastewater Could Treat Itself, Power City

[phantom power]

The energy stored in Toronto's municipal wastewater could be harnessed to run water treatment facilities and contribute power to the city grid, says new University of Toronto research.

The study, published in the August issue of the Journal of Energy Engineering, is the first to measure the energy content of the raw municipal wastewater in the Ashbridges Bay, North Toronto, Highland Creek and Humber plants. The research revealed that the wastewater contained enough organic material to potentially produce 113 megawatts of electricity or close to 990 million kilowatt hours a year.

"With a 20 per cent recovery of that potential energy into electricity, the wastewater treatment plants could produce enough electricity for their own operation," says civil engineering professor David Bagley, who conducted the research with lead author and PhD candidate Ioannis Shizas. "Any recovery of potential energy above that can be returned to the grid."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/print.php?url=/releases/2004/09/040921073957.htm

[Squeech]

1. How to capture that energy?

Does Maxwell's Demon live in Toronto and need a job?

[Dogmudgeon]

2. Strain it, ferment it, and collect the alcohol and/or methane

Welcome to the era in which Shinola is less valuable than Shit.

--bkl

[NNadir]

3. The power demand in Ontario is about 30,000 Megawatts.

http://www.electricityforum.com/news/apr04/imoshort.html

Thus the energy contained in the sewage of Toronto represents a potential 0.3% of the demand.

Still every little bit counts.

I believe methane from sewage has been used industrially for some time.

[Bdog]

4. It should be part of home land security...

every sewage treatment plant should be able to run without the grid.

And every hospital should have a co-generation plant...that way they could generate their own electricity and heat.

[kestrel91316]

5. Time is long past for us to start doing this............................

all that methane from the fermenting waste just winds up in the atmosphere as a VERY POTENT greenhouse gas. We are starting to see dairy operations using their cow waste to generate the operation's energy needs. Time for us to start doing this to run the plants independently of the grid. Definitely a national security issue! And an environmental duty.

[Massacure]

6. I thought cow dung was supposed to be a excellent fertilizer?

[kestrel91316]

7. The fully fermented residue is great fertilizer...................

If you use it after harvesting energy, you get more bang for your buck than just using the straight manure as fertilizer without harvesting the energy.

[Massacure]

8. Oh, I see now. Thanks for clearing that up.