San Antonio Plans to Convert Human Waste to Energy
Texas City Expects to Recycle More Than 90 Percent of Liquid and Solid Wastes
By Larry West, About.com Guide
San Antonio is poised to become the first U.S. city to transform the human waste of its residents into clean-burning natural gas that can fuel their furnaces and the power plants that light their homes.
Every year, San Antonio residents flush about 140,000 tons of biosolids down the drain. In a deal approved by the city on September 9, 2008, Ameresco, Inc., a Massachusetts-based energy services company, will convert the methane from San Antonio’s biosolids into natural gas and purchase the fuel from the city.
Fuel from Human Waste to Generate Income for San Antonio
San Antonio produces enough biosolids to generate an average of 1.5 million cubic feet of natural gas per day—enough to fill 1,250 tanker trucks. Under the new agreement, San Antonio will sell Ameresco at least 900,000 cubic feet of natural gas daily for 20 years, which will produce up to $250,000 in additional revenue for the city every year.
"The private vendor will come onto the facility, construct some gas cleaning systems, remove the moisture, remove the carbon dioxide content, and then sell that gas on the open market," said Steve Clouse, chief operating officer for the San Antonio Water System (SAWS), in an interview with Reuters.
Cities Worldwide Explore New Ways to Convert Waste to Fuel
With this move, San Antonio joins the ranks of other cities in the United States and elsewhere that are finding innovative ways to convert human and animal waste and byproducts into energy. In San Francisco, city officials are exploring the feasibility of turning methane from pet feces into fuel, while Sweden plans to recycle human body heat to warm a new shopping/hotel/office complex at Stockholm Central Station, the largest train station in Sweden.
San Antonio to Recycle 90 Percent of Wastewater and Biosolids
Clouse estimates it will take 18 to 24 months to construct the facilities needed to fulfill the contract. Once the new program is under way, however, more than 90 percent of the liquid and solid wastes flushed down San Antonio’s sinks and toilets will be recycled.
The city already sells treated waste water for irrigation and converts some biosolids into compost that is sold to homeowners who use it in their gardens and yards. While a few other U.S. communities already use the methane gas from solid waste to fuel sewage treatment plants or similar small facilities, San Antonio will be the first to achieve large-scale commercial conversion of sewage into natural gas for power generation.
"As far as we know, SAWS is the only city [utility] in the United States that has completed the renewable recyclable trifecta," Clouse told the Associated Press. "We're very pleased that we can capture and sell this gas, which is good for San Antonio's air quality and puts this renewable energy resource to work for San Antonio."
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