Can New Waste Treatment Make Energy and Profits from Sewage Plants? Most Americans flush the toilet without thinking twice about where the contents end up, but a handful of companies are paying close attention to what goes down the drain. They argue it should be seen as a resource rather than waste. Dealing with human waste is a tricky business.
The wet material typically has to be treated at a sewage plant, dried and turned into a biosolid, then either hauled away to a landfill or turned into mulch and reused as fertilizer. According to the U.S. Now, some companies are saying this method of dealing with waste is just plain wasteful. That's where sewage-to-energy comes in. By essentially recycling the waste as electricity or converting it to biodiesel fuel, rather than putting it in a landfill, converting sewage into energy also reduces greenhouse gas emissions. "There are truly not many options for dealing with sewage, but [municipalities] need to address it somehow," said Dennis Wherrell, CEO of Earth, Wind & Fire Technologies. Getting more electricity from sewage: just add gold?
Toilets in skyscrapers: energy source? Human waste now heats British homes. Energy: From Poop To Power - Forbes.com.