Triple Pundit reports on the Philadelphia Water Department's partnership with Texas-based Aeresco on a $47.5 million wastewater-to-biogas facility, which will have a capacity of 5.6 megawatts and is expected to save PWD $12 million on its energy bill over the course of a 16-year contract.
That’s part of a broader renewable energy goal the city set under its sustainability plan. In 2008 Philadelphia received only 2.4 percent of its electricity from alternative sources, and the aim is to get that up to 20 percent by 2015.
Wastewater treatment plants naturally produce copious amounts of biogas, since they involve the fairly straightforward process of decomposition. As microorganisms digest the organic material in wastewater, they produce gas. In the past, the gas was simply flared off for safety and odor prevention, but with impurities removed biogas can be stored, transported and used just like any other gas.
Original source: Triple Pundit
Read the full story
here.