Plant to turn sewer gas into fuel

By Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Originally published 03:37 p.m., May 21, 2008
Updated 03:37 p.m., May 21, 2008

Grand Junction is looking in the sewer to help fight rising fuel costs.

The solid waste that is flushed daily into sewers by city residents gets turned into methane gas anyway during the treatment process, purchasing manager Jay Valentine said.

Currently, that methane gas just wafts into the atmosphere.

But for about $3 million, the Persigo Waste Water Treatment Plant can install some equipment that can capture that gas, remove the smell and the carbon, and change it into compressed natural gas, ready for the fuel pump.

Both the Grand Junction City Council and the Mesa County Board of Commissioners would have to OK the plan.

Valentine says the city can produce CNG for the equivalent of $1.29 a gallon, and that it likely would first be used to power the city's sanitation trucks. Later, it might fill up the buses on the Grand Valley Transit System routes.

It looks like the plant can make the equivalent of 390 gallons of gasoline each day — that's about 142,000 gallons a year, Valentine said.

That won't be enough for all of the city's 588 cars and trucks, but it will make a serious dent.

"It would be nice to have a complete hedge almost against rising costs of fuel," Valentine said. He noted that in January the city was paying just $2.42 a gallon for unleaded gasoline and $2.72 for diesel. Now, even with the discounts from having their own pumps, they're paying $3.19 for the gasoline and $3.78 for diesel.

If gasoline costs don't rise much above current levels, it could take more than a decade to break even on the retooling costs.

"But there's more to this than just the payback," Valentine said. "If we want to be truly sustainable as a city, this could be a big factor in getting there."

If things go smoothly, the city beginning next year could start phasing in new cars or converting the existing fleet to being able to accept CNG.

Fresno, Calif., already has 80 of its garbage trucks running on CNG produced at the city's sewer system, and Seal Beach, Calif., is fueling 75 sanitation trucks the same way, he said.

Denver is at about the same place as Grand Junction in pursuing the idea, he said. Officials with Denver Environmental Health did not return telephone calls on the subject.

Valentine doesn't expect any backlash from city residents over the plan, noting that the scrubbers to be built into the system will remove any offending odors.

"All we're doing is capturing a natural part of the waste-water treatment process," he said.

"We're turning poop into roses."

In another fuel-sticker-shock development, Molson-Coors Brewing Company today announced it will be donating all the ethanol to be used by the transportation fleet at August's Democratic National Convention in Denver. The company says its the first brewery to make ethanol from waste beer.

• May 21, 2008

  4:16 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  maukaman writes:

  Sewage to government vehicles. There must be a joke in here somewhere.

• May 21, 2008

  6:29 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  alwaysright writes:

  That makes them about 15 years behind times.

• May 21, 2008

  11:14 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  Froward69 writes:

  about time.

• May 22, 2008

  8:30 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  rwmorrisonjr writes:

  Now if they could only figure out how to capture the lost energy in all the hot air the politicians generate, we'd have an unlimited source of renewable energy.

• May 23, 2008

  8:36 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  SASQUATCH writes:

  Yet another triumph for a Gov. Ritter Blue Ribbon Commission recomendation.

• May 25, 2008

  3:34 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  dillard writes:

  There is no shortage of sewage and it should have been converted to energy years ago.

• May 27, 2008

  5:56 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  craigcolorado writes:

  This is old technology folks...nothing new. And as always...it generally takes a crisis to get us thinking and acting in the correct direction. In my former city/state of residence..this method of capturing this waste gas has been taking place for over 25 years! In fact...it work so well that the sewage plant expanded further to produce more CNG!! Most of the cities vehicles have been running just fine for many many years. And it doesn't take or ost much to convert a gasoline engine over to CNG. So the question begs answering....why not expand this to the average citizen if supplies were made available...instead of fighting endless wars and spending 12 to 15 billion each and every mouth for a secure oil supply from the middle east..which isn't working...all this money we borrowed to fund these wars could and should have been spent to retrofit homes to solar...cities to CNG...wind which is of course abundant in most states..geothermal..proper insulation, you know the drill. Those that proclaim that this would cut into jobs are not factoring in the many thousands and thousands of jobs created by ridding ourselves from the fist of oil rich companies and nations. More so...our dollars stay here in the U.S.A. instead of flowing out like a flood!! Just do it!! And by the way...this CNG is extremely clean burning...engines last a very long time using this type of fuel..just as propane powered engines will get a good 400,000 to 500,000 thousand miles before the engine sort of wears out!! Can you imagine??!!!