What we're doing right
Waste not, want not
20th September 2008
They say one man’s trash is another man’s treasure – and it is true even of human waste.
San Antonio, Tex., announced last week that it would become the first U.S. city to sell methane gas harvested from human “biosolids” on a commercial scale.
Though the source is quite different from a natural gas well, methane processed from human sewage is chemically identical to conventional gas fuel, so it can be used by existing power plants. The city estimates that it will be able to use 90 per cent of municipal sewage to create 1.5 million cubic feet of gas a day.
“Biogas” created from burning organic matter – such as manure, agricultural waste, discarded food and wood pulp – is already being used worldwide. For example, cow waste powers buses in Sweden and provides energy for more than a million people in Nepal.
Creating biogas from human waste may be particularly useful for developing countries such as India, where open-air defecation is common and a major health hazard. The United Nations named 2008 the International Year of Sanitation to highlight the fact that 2.6 billion people worldwide have nowhere safe and clean to go to the bathroom.
Published in The Green Report in The Globe and Mail
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