I read this article about a North Carolina waste treatment facility looking into using human waste as a fuel for an incinerator / generator. However, it was dated 2010.
US to tap human waste for electricity | SBS World News
Quote:
A wastewater-treatment plant in Cabarrus County expects to start burning processed human excrement as early as next year to generate its own electricity.
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The energy content of the man-made fuel is comparable to that of wood, says Robert Rubin, a professor of biological and agricultural engineering.
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Quite interesting, I had no idea poo had that kind of energy density...
So, I googled up the latest info on it and it seems like they're going ahead with things. At the very least the idea is still there. The article doesn't have a lot of new info unfortunately. 1.9 mW doesn't seem like a ton of power. I wonder how many homes the wastewater plant serves?
Quote:
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The Rocky River Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant, run by the Water and Sewer Authority of Cabarrus County, plans to invest $12 million to build a system that will enable it to produce up to 1.9 megawatts of electricity -- enough energy to power 1,400 homes every day -- from heat generated by a multihearth sludge incinerator. Sludge is human feces with the water removed.
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A small FAQ sheet can be found on the company's website here:
http://www.wsacc.org/vertical/sites/...y_FLYER_V4.pdf
The sheet states that the plant will be online in early 2013 which is just about anytime now.