Sewers
Do you know of any municipalities that produce electricity from sewer gas?
Massive amounts of electricity can be generated from sewer gas which is a byproduct of sewage treatment. The odd explosion and the dumping gas into the air are all I have ever heard of. Many large intense farm animal operations do this commercially, why don't Cities?
Public Comments
- do not know of any cities that produce electricity from sewer gas, however many cities are producing electricity from methane gas produced from landfills
- They're not doing it along the sewer lines that I'm aware of, but they're doing this more and more at sewage treatment plants - I came up with 32,300 google references on this. Admittedly many of them are small test projects, but this is an idea being looked at seriously around the planet. I'm glad to see it, too. Personally, I've wondered what it would take to do this on a household basis, but I haven't figured how to do this and still keep plumbing vented so it's safe, I suspect that's why methane isn't being collected off of feeder lines before the sewage treatment plants themselves. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22sewage+treatment+plant%22+electricity+methane&btnG=Google+Search&aq=f&oq=
- At one time either Dallas or Fort Worth used sewer gas to run engines in their water treatment systems. I don't know if it is accurate to say you can generate massive amounts of electricity but you can certainly operate internal combustion engines on sewer gas if properly gathered and treated.
- Mining towns in Arizona were doing it in the late 19th and early 20th. centuries, But it is now considered impossible to do, ever since research into alternative energy sources was killed by the Reagan administration. Check out the history of Jerome, Ariz. (I think).
- It has been in the news lately here, as a major city nearby is considering it. The downside is the pollution and toxins in the air, though the companies behind it make big promises on minimal environmental effects.
