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The Power of Sewage
Eridanis writes ""The waste you flush down the toilet could one day power the lights in your home. So say researchers at Pennsylvania State University who last week revealed they have developed an electricity generator fuelled by sewage." Hey, it seems that EA will have to create a new building for Simcity!"
.... so do lots of other things. What happens when someone flushes a pint of paint thinner or weed killer or heavy metal organic compound down the old toilet?
Biomass technology (energy produced from waste) has been around since the 70's. Though more specific and more refined than its predecessors, there's nothing revolutionary about this.
We discussed a similar high temperature conversion in the past. This alternative process uses high temperature/high pressure water to crack a wide range of complex molecules into simpler stuff. It can convert sewage, toxic waste, and animal byproducts into a mix of combustible hydrocarbons, salts, and water.
The new Microbial Fuel Cell method sounds interesting, but I bet it fails in the field. I'd bet that nasty substances (the odd pulse of heavy metals, detergents, or drain cleaner) would poison the microbial catalysts in this new fuel cell.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
Yeah it was the thermal depolymerization (TDP) process...supposedly perfected by some company called Changing World Technologies...
I thought that plant next to the turkey-processing place was supposed to be running by now..has anybody heard any follow up on that? You'd think it would be bigger news if it was operating as well as they said it would...
teeker
I would like to see all kinds of technologies that allow private parties to generate electricity become more prevalent. You can decentralize the power grid and open it up as a peer to peer trading network. It's the logic of the internet applied to the outdated logic of the power grid.
Put solar, wind, sewage treatment, and other types of generators in your house. Use what you need and trade what you don't. If you've got a shortage then buy back what you need. In January, south africans can sell solar generated energy to russia. In june, russians can sell it back. Private and commercial ventures alike can create power in large amounts by any means and then sell it in the free market directly to end users and other public entities with large energy demands that are all then free to buy from the lowest cost sources.
Hydrogen fuel cells will also help enable this by allowing the banking of energy for later use and/or trade. Superconductors can improve the efficiency of the whole system and help the private sector economics reach critical mass. Are all of these kinds of technologies going to inevitably converge toward an energy revolution? Between all the bits and pieces it really looks like something is going to come together...
When I was a kid, my dad worked as a mechanic at a sewage treatment plant. After the sewage comes in, it passes through a system called a digester where it sat. The fumes which were collected were mostly methane gas, that was pumped into giant diesel engines that ran generators that ran the digestion system that ran the engines that ran the... Oh dear I've gone cross-eyed. There was still some solid waste left behind however. It was loaded into large spreaders and spread out on large fields and then flattened out to dry. Though about 90% of the stink had gone local residents still complained. So they came up with an industrial perfume called Roto-ban that was sprayed on top to cover up the smell. Shortly after more people complained about the smell from the perfume than the waste, so they stopped using it. What was left over was collected and sold as industrial fertilizer. You could not legally (in the US) use it to fertilize vegitation used for human consumption, but you could use it to fertilize food used for animal consumption (and then they could legally sell the animals as food). So basically HAHAHA (pointing) You eat turds!