Planet-preserving potty power pilot program!

[n2doc]

Posted on April 22, 2011 by Neil Wagner

From a funny and informative post by Todd Woody at Grist:

“…the California Energy Commission on Wednesday handed out nearly $1 million to fund an experimental project to convert what it politely refers to as “biosolids” into electricity… Biosolids are a nasty pollution problem; beyond human waste, they can also include a sludge of heavy metals and other toxins left over from wastewater treatment. While in some cases biosolids can be used as fertilizer for crops, they most often have to be disposed of in landfills… A Bay Area company called Intellergy will use “steam/carbon dioxide reforming” technology to vaporize liquid residues and gasify the organic solid portion of biosolids in an airlock chamber. The company will pump in steam and carbon dioxide to create a hydrogen-rich gas that could be used in fuel cells to generate electricity.”

Fuel cell info from MSNBC: “…the hydrogen and oxygen can be to keep the electricity flowing, producing pure water in the process.”

http://www.sciencefriday.com/blog/2011/04/planet-preserving-potty-power-pilot-program/

[DCKit]

1. The more concentrated the waste products become, the easier it will be to recycle them...

as the technology becomes available.

Someday, all our former trash dumps are going to be mined, and for damned good reason.

[pscot]

2. K&R for alliteration

[Kolesar]

3. Ha!