Wastewater Renewable Energy

The Water Environment Federation’s (WEF) Board of Trustees approved a position statement on the recovery of resources from wastewater during WEFTEC — taking place this week in Los Angeles, Calif. The statement, “Renewable Energy Generation From Wastewater”, calls for wastewater-generated energy to be widely recognized as a renewable resource and for a greater drive for innovation in the water sector.

On a related note, I talked with someone on the show floor at WEFTEC about treating treating digester gas to make it clean enough to feed to a natural gas network. It's being done! Based on the local cost of power, it is sometimes more cost-effective for wastewater treatment plants to sell the gas rather than using it to generate on-site power.