San Antonio Generating Gas from Sewage
San Antonio, Texas is making use of its 140,000 tons of sewage generated each year to capture methane gas. The city’s utility board of trustees approved a contract this week to sell 900,000 cubic feet of natural gas derived from the sewage each day to Ameresco, a Massachusetts energy services company.
Though methane is a potent greenhouse gas, it has a variety of uses. The substance can be used for fuel in gas turbines or steam boilers, and it is also used as vehicle fuel in the form of compressed natural gas. Additionally, NASA is researching methane as a potential rocket fuel.
According to Steve Claus, the chief operating officer of the water system, San Antonio’s sewage generates 1.5 million cubic feet of gas each day—enough to fill seven commercial blimps or 1,250 tanker trucks. The facilities needed for the project will be ready in about two years.
San Antonio will get $250,000 a year for the methane—a sum that I hope will go towards more renewable energy efforts in the area.
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September 11th, 2008 at 10:34 pm
Great news San Antonio!!
Other U.S. cities should follow on
September 11th, 2008 at 10:35 pm
this is great news! i hope my hometown, vegas, will have the guts to follow san antonio.
September 11th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
Chandler, AZ has been doing this for years:
http://wasteage.com/mag/waste_little_landfill/
September 11th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
Just curious why no mention of its toxic effects is listed. Unless they somehow alter it to a safe(r) form, this is a bad idea as no one has mentioned what by-product is released after this ‘fuel’ is consumed by machinery etc. Typical that the least amount of info (none of my skepticism is directed towards you, rather directed towards the inadequate research and greedy planning done by the various bodies responsible.
September 11th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
I think some one had turned trash into fuel before. Wasn’t his name Dr. Emmit Brown? I think it was the Mr. Fusion he used in order to power a time machine. Give credit where credit is due.
September 11th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
Very cool, but how expensive is the cost of starting this program/technology? Unless San Antonio starts earning more money for this or the costs are cut down later, it would seem that they should stand to lose money for such unusual technology.
September 11th, 2008 at 10:52 pm
Wonderful! It’s great to see a practical, clean energy option being put into use. Way to go, San Antonio!
September 11th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
Yeah! This will be good for monkeys like me!
September 11th, 2008 at 11:04 pm
We could use this methane to supplement diesel fuels: Methane introduced into a running diesel will combust and add power. It cannot be used as a sole fuel, as even diesel heat and pressure will not set it alight, but if a small amount of diesel fuel is injected as a source of ignition, methane can burn as well. In this way, it can displace quite a lot of petroleum-based fuel. An inexpensive fumigation system could allow most diesels to displace more than 70% of the petroleum-based fuel with methane- which also burns more cleanly.
Too bad our legislators consider such a simple arrangement “tampering”! I would love to run my truck on natural gas, but it is currently illegal to do so! I would face a fine of $5000/day for even trying to do the right thing! Our laws need to change, and soon.
September 11th, 2008 at 11:12 pm
Please let residential home owners know when we can take advantage of this and what would be the cost of one of these?
September 11th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
Yes! Finally someone got it right! Stop digging in the ground for oil and burn methane! Burning methane produces carbon dioxide, which is a much less potent greenhouse gas as far as it’s ability to trap heat in the atmosphere. Pennsylvania farmers buy methane digesters for their cows. Check out Lancaster Farming. The byproducts are used as fertilizer and mulch, but they don’t smell bad after being digested, and bacteria are killed in the process. If a dairy farm with 800 cows can provide electricity for itself AND over a thousand neighboring houses, and there are 1.6 million dairy cattle in Pennsylvania alone, do the math! Consider the line drop as well- it makes more sense to produce electrcity locally. This takes care of the need to treat sewage too- Whereever there is a sewage treatment plant, there could be a methane digester and power plant. One farmer I read an interview with said that his methane digester had kept his farm supplied with electricity for years- he lost power for 15 minutes out of a decade. No worry about blackouts on that farm, and a methane digester under the barn keeps the cows warm and dry!
September 11th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
Thats pretty nifty…major kudos to whoever thought this up, smart, uses resources that would be wasted otherwise, we need more stuff like this
September 11th, 2008 at 11:52 pm
I don’t get it. Sure its nice to get use out of waste, especially massively produced human waste, but making people pay for what they produce naturally, I don’t get it how that works at all. Sure, people are needed to collect the gas from the sewage, and those people need to make an income, but it really needs to be clearly explained how the economics actually work without being lied to be corporations(like with ENRON)so we can understand why it is necessary to pay for something when we are already contributing through our waste. If anything, it better be extremely inexpensive and actually cost less than what we are already paying for natural gas, otherwise it just doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.
September 11th, 2008 at 11:52 pm
This is a no brainer. Global Warming may be a hoax [it's not] but the benefits of going green are definately not.
September 12th, 2008 at 12:18 am
This is a very good move and could be very helpful to poor countries like my own Malawi in Africa. Our sewage is put to waste and indeed waste while our colleague in the advanced world are looking at sewage as a good source of energy.
How could I geet in touch with the people involved as find ways of improving our own situation here and make use of our waste.
Regard,
Clement G.J. Stambuli, MP
Member of Parliament
Nkhotakota Central Constituency
Malawi
September 12th, 2008 at 12:19 am
Wow, this is cool. At last some use of waste.Some people in the Phillipines have been doing this for some time but in small scale.
September 12th, 2008 at 12:30 am
I am so impressed by this article. Iam equally touched by the level of wastes generated in kampala(about 2 metric tonnes perday)and have felt something can be done about it too. Congratulations!
September 12th, 2008 at 12:32 am
Fatimah,
Methane is a bio fuel.After burning methane (or when used in machineries) the by products are Carbon Dioxide and water. But compared to hydrocarbon fuels methane produces a lot less Carbon Dioxide… Methane is actually a good thing…
September 12th, 2008 at 12:38 am
What are you talking about Fatimah? Methane is non-toxic. Granted, if its concentration became sufficiently high so that oxygen availability was reduced asphyxiation is possible. Furthermore, when methane burns you get water and carbon dioxide, neither of which are toxic.
Right on Fast Eddie!!!
September 12th, 2008 at 12:54 am
Sounds like a krappy idea to me
September 12th, 2008 at 12:55 am
Many communities have done this for years.
September 12th, 2008 at 12:58 am
yeah! its good to hear the practical application of natural gas to man kind from the sewage waste.
Is this similar to obtain gobar gas from cow dung which is used by people in most of the villages for full filling their domestic fuel
September 12th, 2008 at 1:07 am
before to late, we keep in the world
September 12th, 2008 at 1:11 am
Here are a couple things to realize for all you doubters. There is no new side effects or emmissions from methane. Methane = Natural Gas. If you have natural gas in your home you are already using the EXACT same gas. When it burns you get CO2 and water. Most cities have a smoke stack on their sewage treatment plants. If you drive by them at night you will see a flame 15 foot tall. That is poo gas (i.e. methane, Natural gas). If there is any side effects from it all city dwellers are already screwed.
Also you need to understand it is NOT illegal to run a vehicle on methane. In fact Honda has a version of the Civic (Civic GX) that is sold in a few states in the US already that is powered by natural gas (California is one of the ones that has them readily available). In Utah there are a lot of vehicles being converted due to having the lowest natural gas prices in the nation. As long as its done by a certified installer its legal. Kits are also available over the internet and are not expensive. If its illegal then its a state law not a national one.
It is not likely that this technology will become available for private home owners. A single household does not generate enough meathane to be worth it. In addition the only people that would even be in a position to do it would be those on a septic system and not city sewers. Probably wouldn’t be that hard to create a kit for septic owners to do this and it would be cheap. (Think garden hose and air pump. Any engine can burn it when pressurized. Mythbusters proved it.) The technology does exist and is common in third world countries and even in many US dairy farms. Most systems require about 5 cows worth of output to create enough methane to do much with. I have seen commercial dairies with hundreds of cows producing 80% of their power off their cow manure.
September 12th, 2008 at 9:06 am
The Brazilian state of Parana is taking a slightly different tact with its 191 sewage treatment plants. They are tapping the methane to run microturbines to make the treatment plants energy self-sufficient. [They are also looking into using the flow of sewage from one tank to another to drive turbines.] Any excess power they generates will be sold to the grid.
September 12th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
And the best part is that we’re unlikely to run out of garbage anytime soon!
I’d like to know what the effect is of burning methane too, but my understanding is that we’re actually reducing the amount of greenhouse gases by capturing it and burning it. The garbage would produce methane anyway, and burning it reduces the amount in the ozone. I could be wrong though, so if anyone knows, please contact me.
Two points about methane though — it’s still cleaner than petroleum and domestic supplies can remain and be used domestically (not so of oil, because it’s traded worldwide as a commodity – no matter what the Republicans are telling us).
I think T. Boone Pickens is right when he says natural gas is an excellent transitional fuel for America’s transition to 100 percent clean energy.
October 15th, 2009 at 8:17 am
This is not meant to be funny or facetious in any way, But: Americans are much larger and better fed than even Asian pigs, for example, and in Asia pig-poo is used to produce fuel in compressed gas low pressure bottled form! Not new technology! Very do-able! like propane! It seems to me only logical that American humanure, as well as Factory Farm waste has value as a resource flow for the same purpose, and the bidding wars for it will start the day the “Cheap oil Era” ends and fuels have real value! Imagine the riches being lost daily from Chicago, Detroit, New York, Atlanta Boston and the like! When will the corporatist sharpen his pencil and go after this ROI and clean up America at the same time! Apparently event the remaining sludge can be sold as top-soil fertilizer and improver! Win-win in the offing America! We will get fuel, cleaner lakes, rivers and seashores and better, more fertile soil for growing in, all in one mighty Capitalistic grab for our Shiite and pee! Oil price rises exponentially as its decline accelerates in similar fashion and we await our rewards to begin, Clean Air, fewer internal combustion engines, bullet trains to replace frantic jet flights, cheaper freight by rail, cheap bottled methane for all and great topsoil to replace corporatism’s salted and burned out fields, Solar, Wind Wave, Hydro, Tidal, and Geo-thermal displacing filthy nuclear power and America bursting fourth in green bloom, and the “Fourth Turning” a time and place for the true “Age of Aquarius” and a joy to all! Even Asians can do this for themselves, and for the good of mankind! End the Cheap oil Age now! End psycho-consumerism in America! Let life happen without pollution, corruptin! it can be done! – San Antonio is living proof!
February 18th, 2010 at 3:57 pm
Good article blog. Thank you for your help!