Matt Burgos
A team of researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) received a nearly $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to create renewable fuel from sewage sludge, a byproduct of wastewater treatment that creates greenhouse gases and water pollution when dumped into landfills. With the U.S. EPA reporting that Americans alone are putting more than 2 billion pounds of sewage sludge into landfills every year, researchers see an opportunity to keep much of that sludge out of landfills and use it to create energy, power the wastewater treatment process, and potentially supplement municipalities’ power grids.
Michael Timko, associate professor of chemical engineering and principal investigator on the three-year grant, is leading a team to develop an on-site operation that uses hydrothermal processes, high temperatures and pressure, and inexpensive catalysts to turn sewage sludge—and the energy and carbon contained in it—into natural gas. Since the the DOE reports that the energy in wastewater entering treatment facilities is five times greater than the energy needed to treat it, recovering that trapped energy on-site will enable treatment plants to replace or supplement purchased energy sources. In addition, nitrates and phosphates extracted during the new process can be used in agriculture.