Green wedge
HARNESSING THE POWER OF POO
A huge amount of energy
is used for sewage
treatment – in fact, some
cities use up to 20 per cent
of their total electricity
consumption on the
procedure. In search
of a solution, researchers
have perhaps found a way
to dramatically reduce
the waste from waste.
With the help of Queensland Urban Utilities,
a University of Queensland researcher believes
he has figured out how to convert biogas
from sewage waste into electricity.
Continually working to refine the technology,
Dr Shihu Hu from the UQ Advanced Water
Management Centre has been researching at
Queensland’s largest wastewater treatment facility.
“The site gives me unlimited access to free samples,
with about 60 Olympic swimming pools of waste
arriving every day,” says Hu. “The organic material
in that waste can be broken down to produce biogas
rich in methane. Wastewater contains concentrated
amounts of nitrogen that can lead toxic algae blooms
and oxygen depletion or dead zones if it enters
natural waterways. Most wastewater treatment
facilities use ethanol for nitrogen
removal, costing millions of dollars
each year.”
“We expect this technology will be rapidly adopted,”
says Hu. “It means the energy-intensive water
treatment industry can go from big energy
consumers to being energy neutral. It would save
hundreds of thousands of dollars for large facilities
and it is more sustainable for the planet.” n
According to Hu, this expensive
process used up almost half the
organic matter in the waste,
meaning less was available
for conversion to methane.
“The new technology we are
developing can recover more
methane without requiring
ethanol to be used to remove
nitrogen,” he says. “This also means
we can recover almost all of the
organic matter in the wastewater
to produce even more biogas.”
Continued research into the
technology is set to be expanded
to many more wastewater facilities,
with the help of a $300,000
Advance Queensland Research
Fellowship grant.
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August 2016 | www.hvacrnation.com.au | HVAC&R Nation | 13