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The Washington, DC wastewater treatment plant figured out how to generate methane from sewage, which they then burn to drive turbines. They get 10MW of net elec
by jonstewart 6y ago
The Washington, DC wastewater treatment plant figured out how to generate methane from sewage, which they then burn to drive turbines. They get 10MW of net electricity out of it, which they use themselves (sounds like their electric usage is 30MW). It would seem that a lot of industry installations with waste heat sources likely also use a lot of electricity and could benefit from doing something similar.
https://www.dcwater.com/whats-going-on/news/dc-water-leverages-technology-first-north-america-generate-clean-renewable https://www.dcwater.com/whats-going-on/news/dc-water-leverag...
- nullc 6y agoEven ignoring the energy savings, methane is a potent greenhouse gas so you'd much rather it be burned than just released. Though I wonder if there isn't an opportunity to sequester a lot of carbon being missed by digesting sludge instead of ... say, dumping it into a deep injection well.
- why_only_15 6y ago10MW ~= $3M/yr @ $30/Mwh (going by https://www.eia.gov/electricity/wholesale/xls/ice_electric-2020.xlsx https://www.eia.gov/electricity/wholesale/xls/ice_electric-2... )
- tobinfricke 6y agoI think this is pretty common at sewage treatment plants. Our local plant (EBMUD in West Oakland) does this too. In fact it seems they import additional organic waste to throw into their methane digester, with the resulting generation covering all of the plant's needs: https://www.ebmud.com/wastewater/collection-treatment/wastewater-treatment/ https://www.ebmud.com/wastewater/collection-treatment/wastew...