Power from poop? It's on its way

[Daox]

Can't really think of a better thing to do with poop... According to a quick google search, 1.5 megawatts will only power about 1,500 homes though.

Their mini power plant, expected to be operating by late 2011 or early 2012, will generate 1.5 megawatts of power, about three-fourths of the authority's electricity needs. Retrofitting the incineration system will cost about $10 million and will produce $2 million a year in electricity, Cabarrus officials estimate.

The source of fuel: roughly 300,000 North Carolina residents. Half of these fuel producers are served by the Cabarrus water authority; the rest of the fuel will come from neighboring wastewater-treatment plants that pay Cabarrus to dispose of their waste.

"The sludge is being transported right now to either be land-applied (as fertilizer), which does smell, by the way, or to some sort of landfill," said Jennifer Bell, an engineering consultant for Cabarrus County. "Human waste has been a liability for decades and decades."

Power from poop? It's on its way - CharlotteObserver.com

[benpope]

TVA runs a combined coal/methane plant here in Memphis. Since it is right next to one of the sewage plants, they collect methane and burn it along with the coal. Methane makes up about 8 megawatts, just a drop in the bucket for a 750 megawatt plant.

[strider3700]

"Human waste has been a liability for decades and decades."

Only in the western world. Most of the world recognizes fertilizer when they see it and reapply it to the soil. It has to be done in a safe manner but incinerating it is insane. We do methane collection and power generation on our sewage plants as well. Before we put the generator in we just flared the methane off.