Comments on: US Cities Could Churn Out Renewable Hydrogen From Wastewater

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Sat, 25 Jan 2014 04:51:00 +0000

It’s like biodiesel from french fry cookers. Works, but the feedstock is too limited to be a big player.

Biofuels and hydrogen will likely never be affordable enough to compete with electricity but will find their niche where electricity won’t work.

By: rrdonovan

rrdonovan — Sat, 25 Jan 2014 04:42:00 +0000

Just another bull sh – t ploy to take away from solar, and wind power. I guess no one remembers the Hindenburg. My bets on Tesla. So don’t get your shorts in a bunch over this.

By: keithdude

keithdude — Mon, 16 Sep 2013 22:26:00 +0000

They are already doing this in Southern California at the Orange County Sanitation District. On the outside are hydrogen and natural gas pumps for cars.

By: ptullis

ptullis — Mon, 16 Sep 2013 20:09:00 +0000

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/18/business/trash-into-gas-efficiently-an-army-test-may-tell.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/alternative_energy/2013/03/distributed_generation_fuel_cells_for_on_site_power_plants.html

By: John Bailo

John Bailo — Mon, 16 Sep 2013 14:04:00 +0000

Brightwater near Seattle would be a good candidate…it centralizes wastewater from a good part of the county. You could funnel the waste into some fuel cells and squeeze out energy that way. Also the state of Washington has a mandate, written into law, to promote the use and application of fuel cells.

By: Neil Blanchard

Neil Blanchard — Sat, 14 Sep 2013 17:37:00 +0000

Methane from sewage is even better, because it doesn’t need any additional processing – it is what they are using to get the hydrogen from.

The remaining slurry after the methane is produced, is a high quality fertilizer. The nitrogen is not water soluble so it would not runoff in the first rain – and it could replace the chemical fertilizer we use that is made from natural gas…

Methane digesters are a win-win. Using the methane itself makes much more sense than turning it into hydrogen – which is much less efficient, and much harder to handle.

By: Kyle Field

Kyle Field — Fri, 13 Sep 2013 14:44:00 +0000

Exciting tech! A local wastewater treatment plant in my area (Southern California, USA) has installed a 750kw system on their large rooftop area (http://www.martifersolarusa.com/government-solar-power/gallery/thousand-oaks-california). I’m a huge fan of this and pushing the local branch of my company to do more of the same as we already have a 1.1MW system installed but have a lot more roof and land that we could make use of. Every time I fly back in to Los Angeles, I marvel at how most of the rooftops are bare, just baking in the sun instead of being covered with solar PV, generating electricity…etc etc… opportunities abound!