Methane and leftovers just seemed a timely theme following the holiday meal.
That’s the thinking behind a $100,000 pilot project at the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, given the catchy name “Leftovers to Lights.”
SMUD has contracted with Ruihong Zhang, a professor of biological and agricultural engineering at the University of California, Davis, to study the feasibility of collecting food waste from restaurants and institutions in the Sacramento area and feeding the waste to bacteria that make methane gas.
The Leftovers project involves anaerobic digestion, which harnesses the power of bacteria that thrive in oxygen-less environments to convert organic material into useful gases.
The topic could easily degrade into a crude junior high school joke, but the folks involved are careful not to let it.
Plus, an obligatory FARTS link, which of course has little to do with the story and everything to do with blogging. And please avoid getting carried away: “The presence of methane and oxygen renders the whole mixture flammable. If tried at all, igniting a fart should be tried out extremely carefully. Setting fire to a fart can ‘backfire’! Besides, you should have a good explanation ready because the whole affair is somewhat difficult to explain to rescue and surgery personnel if it goes wrong.”
This sound like something our local conservation district would waste $100,000 on. They would have public hearings, send out newletters and have the local university involved. Once the $100,000 is wasted, you wouldn’t hear another thing about it. It sounds like turning piss into beer or water into wine, like it’s really difficult making beer or wine. My guess is that they will turn a $100,000 into an empty account in 9-12 months.
They’ll do a bunch of thinking about it and get others thinking. Maybe you guys can start a new crap powered blog called Dvorak Unflushed, get a government grant and print a newsletter on toilet paper.
A good idea. The residue may still be used for compost plus it saves on landfill space.
A good idea? See how much investment it attracts.
How much would you invest Pat? That’s the test.
They are sinking $100,000 into it and it could just be a big fraud with a fancy looking research angle. Not that it is or anything. Maybe they can rebuild New Orleans by turning the waste into power. They could use the hundred grand.
I was at a meeting years ago and they were promoting something like this. They were going to grow plants in the waste and the plants would eat the waste. The waste treatment plants could all be turned into greenhouses and you could even grow corn and produce grain alcohol from the waste treatment plant. Some architects were involved. It was really futuristic looking. The waste treatment plant still looks like it did in 1970. The water bills are have really gone up along with gas and electric costs. How about technology to lower the cost of what we use because we know it works. That’s never studied.
We’ve been making electricity (or heat) from landfill gas for some time now. It amazes me that we don’t do more to make use of (and minimize) our waste stream.
I just travelled by car several hundred miles and made the requisite stops along the way, where I encountered several hand blow driers. World Dryer claims on the dryers that they’re better for the environment, more sanitary, and they save trees. I’ve heard, on the other hand, that you get much more bacteria on your hands by drying with an electric dryer (the fan collects the gunk), that forests can be managed, and that electricity production is mostly from fossil fuels – non-renewable and quite messy for the air. Why don’t we have product labels that show how much energy goes into each product’s life cycle?
What we need is that thing on Back To The Future, where what’s his name throws banana peels into a box and away they go. Fit that thing on the back of a Winnebago and we could explore the universe. Thing is, if we don’t do something like that, and soon, then humans will be the former dominant species on planet Earth. It’s what happens when you design your entire habitat based on non-renewable resources, then burn your way through those resouces like there’s no tomorrow.
Well Reader. Lets talk investment.
What is the cost of running a landfill site. What is the cost of treating landfill runoff. What is the cost of not treating landfill runoff that makes it into the well water. Not just today, but for the next 100 years. I think your $100,000 would be used up within the first year or two.
Every little bit that doesn’t go into a landfill and is recycled or reused saves us money. Too many people will look at this and decide that if they can’t turn a profit of 15% return on investment within five years then the project isn’t worthwhile. That of course because so many investments rely upon the public purse to pick up much of the long term “dirty” costs.
I read an article several years ago about this process to recycle tires. They would use liquid nitrogen to cool the tire to -100 F. Then the tire is pulverized into a powder. At the same time, the metal wire in the belts also crumbles and separates from the rubber. One drawback from currently recycling tires is separating the metal from the rubber. The rubber may then be processed into a diesel fuel.
If landfills tapped their gas emissions, mostly methane and hydrogen sulphides, and used them to produce electricity to power the tire recycling then think of the benefits. Fewer tires taking up landfill space. A usable product, diesel fuel. Less smells escaping from the landfill. Electricity generated that may be put into the grid during high demand times. And maybe even a few jobs. Will this show the kind of profit most investors want? No, but there is a long term payback for the public.