wastewater facility
Newcastle University in the U.K. is making new with their latest claim. The “United States flushes 12.5 Trillion gallons of energy down the drain.” They are referring to biofuels in sewage. Newcastle’s Elizabeth S. Heidrich says, “Instead of just processing and dumping this water, we suggest that in the future treatment facilities could convert its organic molecules into fuels, transforming their work from an energy drain to an energy source. Based on our research, we estimate that one gallon of wastewater contains enough energy to power a 100-watt light bulb for five minutes.” A quick internet search offers up thousands of "make your own biofuels at home" links. There are many vehicles that can run on the biofuel, biodiesel. With an ample source of sewage everywhere, biofuels is an option worth exploring. Thanks Newcastle.
micro-algae
One method of using wastewater to generate a biofuel from waste water is from algae. Researchers at the Rochester Institute of Technology, for example, use microalgae as a "renewable feedstock" in the process of making biodiesel. As the algae absorbs some of the wastewater elements they produce a tiny bit of biodiesel. One of the researchers, Jeff Lodge, explains further, " Algae will take out all the ammonia—99 percent—88 percent of the nitrate and 99 percent of the phosphate from the wastewater — all those nutrients you worry about dumping into the receiving water. In three to five days, pathogens are gone... We can start a new batch of algae about every seven days. It’s a more continuous source that could offset 50 percent of our total gas use for equipment that uses diesel." The team eventually extracts the lipids from the single cell algae Scenedesmus to make the biodiesel. Currently the team is only producing 100 gallons at a time, but hope to expand to 1000 by spring. Apply this technique to trillions of gallons, and offseting fuel shortages it will. Good luck R.I.T.
Eavesdropper
