Sewage Biofuel Hits the Big Time with Waste Management Venture

August 28th, 2009 by Tina Casey

Industry juggernaut Waste Management is convinced there’s a future in sewage-to-biofuel, and to prove it the company has just joined with the largest refiner in the U.S., Valero Energy Corp., to blend wastewater “crude” into gasoline. The two companies have invested in Terrabon LLC, which was formed in the 1990’s to commercialize three technologies including a biofuel process called MixAlco. With a half-billion people (and counting) contributing to the feedstock in the U.S. alone, it looks like sewage could be the answer to the search for a truly sustainable biofuel.

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Terrabon, LLC and Biofuel

Terrrabon’s MixAlco biofuel technology is an acid fermentation process that was developed at Texas A&M university by Dr. Mark T. Holtzapple and Dr. Cesar B. Granda. The process can be applied to sewage sludge, municipal solid waste, forest by-products such as wood chips and wood molasses, and to non-food crops like sorghum. It converts the biomass into organic salts called carboxylic acids, which can then be converted to ketones (common industrial solvents), then refined through existing, conventional processes to produce gasoline, jet fuel, or diesel. According to the company, gasoline from MixAlco has a higher energy value than ethanol. The company announced a successful production run at its research facility in Bryan, Texas in July.

Waste Management, Valero Energy, and Biofuel

Until now, the sewage-to-biofuel picture has been somewhat modest. Norway is experimenting with biomethane busses, San Antonio has a sewage biomethane program, and sewage grease is being tapped as a potential fuel. The partnership between Waste Management and Valero takes it a giant step further into the mass market. It means that Terrabon will have access to a high volume of organic waste as a feedstock for the process, along with a major customer to receive the organic salts and convert them to biofuel. Given the national scope of these operations, looks like it’s finally showtime for sewage.

Image: Hryck. on flickr.

Follow me on Twitter: @TinaMCasey.

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Tags: sewage, Terrabon LLC, Valero Energy, waste management

About the Author

Tina Casey Tina Casey specializes in military and corporate sustainability, advanced technology, emerging materials, biofuels, and water and wastewater issues. Tina’s articles are reposted frequently on Reuters, Scientific American, and many other sites. Views expressed are her own. Follow her on Twitter @TinaMCasey and Google+.

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bibhuti man singh

showtime for sewage, you said it!
curious about the cost of it all though, and whether it can be applicable at individual building or building complex level.
technology that is feasible at municipal level only barely interests anyone.
- Tina Casey
  
  Hi Bibhuti Man Singh: Probably depends on the size of the municipality (in other words, the amount of sludge), the price of competing fuels to operate equipment at the plant (pumps, aerators, skimmers, etc.), the value of sludge for other uses (fertilizer, for example), other means of extracting biofuel from sludge (namely, digestion that yields methane gas), and the cost of alternative means of sludge disposal.
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Rob

I love the advances in algae and think the future of fuel will be developed in this field. I recently visited a Sanitation plant in Flagstaff Arizona. The plant currently has a digester that produces Methane which is used to run a co generation plant that produces Electric power needed to operate the system. They use the heat from the methane generator to heat the digester and the system is pretty efficient.

This system is taking sludge from human waste and converting it to power. While the system does use some of the sludge after ten days the sludge is removed from the digester and buried.

The waste produced from this system has all of the necessary elements needed for algae production. It produces large quantities of water, Nutrient rich Sludge, and CO2. At the most basic level this system could be expanded to to grow algae and just put the algae into expanded digesters to increase methane output and ultimately increase the power produced by the power plant. The power plant could be expanded to provide power for others not just the Sanitation plant.

The is a basic step that I feel will be a part of the future where we look at waste as an energy source not something we must pay to get rid of.

Rob Witt
Rob

I love the advances in algae and think the future of fuel will be developed in this field. I recently visited a Sanitation plant in Flagstaff Arizona. The plant currently has a digester that produces Methane which is used to run a co generation plant that produces Electric power needed to operate the system. They use the heat from the methane generator to heat the digester and the system is pretty efficient.

This system is taking sludge from human waste and converting it to power. While the system does use some of the sludge after ten days the sludge is removed from the digester and buried.

The waste produced from this system has all of the necessary elements needed for algae production. It produces large quantities of water, Nutrient rich Sludge, and CO2. At the most basic level this system could be expanded to to grow algae and just put the algae into expanded digesters to increase methane output and ultimately increase the power produced by the power plant. The power plant could be expanded to provide power for others not just the Sanitation plant.

The is a basic step that I feel will be a part of the future where we look at waste as an energy source not something we must pay to get rid of.

Rob Witt
Shahid Ahmed

Need to know more about the technology .perhaps a funtional working manual would help to understand the setup .I believe it is workable in Pakistan too.
Shahid Ahmed

Need to know more about the technology .perhaps a funtional working manual would help to understand the setup .I believe it is workable in Pakistan too.
Shahid Ahmed

Very facinatin details of renewable technology group
Shahid Ahmed

Very facinatin details of renewable technology group