Sludge Watch ==> Israeli startup tranforms sewage sludge into fuel

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

An affordable, environmentally friendly, and technically robust alternative 
to land application -
is what we need in the short run.  But we cannot avoid the issues posed by 
our current water-closet
technology.  Using potable water (a precious, irreplaceable, shrinking 
resource) as a medium to flush
and mix industrial waste with fecal wastes is just a bad idea....and it 
always was a bad idea.

Sir Thomas Crapper got it wrong when he invented the flush toilet.  An 
earthen toilet - as advocated by
some back over the last century- would be an huge advance in source 
separation and in preventing
waterbourne disease and impairment of surface and groundwater.

We don't advocate that you recycle your trash into your own backyard - and 
we don't take municipal trash
and tip it onto farm fields.  Why?  Because it is full of contaminants that 
are detrimental.  So why do we take
sewer waste - with its ballast of toxic industrial chemicals, hospital 
wastes, pharmaceuticals, hormone,  nuclear waste,
etc and decide that this waste stream does not need to be source separated? 
It does need to be source separated.

Industrial wastes should be managed by industry and human fecal waste should 
be managed separately without mixing it
it with industrial wastes and noxious compounds.  We would save precious 
water resources from sewage effluent.
The wastewater industry has decided you would rather poo into water and 
drink that 'reclaimed water' later.
I think we woud rather conserve water and get rid of our wastes without 
squandering the water through a 'water closet'
technology that is essentially 150 years old.

We need to find better ways to manage our current volume of industrially 
contaminated fecal waste (or fecally contaminated industrial waste)
and set about making less of it every year by bringing people and industry 
off the 'One Big Pipe'.

....................................................................................................


Israeli startup transforms sewage sludge into fuel
By David Brinn   December 07, 2006



BioPetrol's technology provides a solution for recycling sewage sludge via a 
thermo-chemical process called pyrolysis




Israeli startup turns organic waste into energy


Israeli cleanup of Alexander River wins international 'Green' award


Incubators provide high tech nourishment






Biopetrol

Mofet

 Sewage sludge is the last place where you'd expect to find something 
valuable. But the brains behind Israeli startup BioPetrol say it is exactly 
the place where it is possible to find gasoline and natural gas. The company 
has developed a method of extracting oil out of sewage sludge, and 
converting it into various petroleum products.

"Sludge is a huge environmental problem all over the world and we have a 
good actual solution for it," says Hillel Lerman, BioPetrol's business 
development director.

The US produces 5.3 million metric tons of sewage sludge each year (dry 
weight, not including the water that carries it). According to the GreenLeft 
website, about 16% of sewage sludge is incinerated, and the ashes are buried 
in landfills; 38% of sludge is landfilled directly; 36% is spread onto 
farmland or forest land or otherwise mixed into soils; and 10% is handled in 
other ways (piled on the land and abandoned, for example).

BioPetrol's technology provides a solution for recycling sewage sludge via a 
thermo-chemical process called pyrolisis. This recovers the hydrocarbons in 
the sludge, producing oil, gas and char products. In addition the process 
also extracts valuable chemicals that can be used as chemical feedstock.

According to Amit Mor, an energy consultant with EcoEnergy who is providing 
guidance to Biopetrol, a ton of high-quality sludge can produce about 30 
kilograms, or 66 pounds, of oil. In addition the process can also convert 
pulp, agricultural waste, plastics and tires into oil. "Sludge is both a 
major problem and major opportunity", he told CNET.com, a technology 
website. "On the one hand it's a major pollutant, and cities pay $50 a ton 
or more to get rid of it. On the other hand, it contains significant amounts 
of good-quality light oil."

BioPetrol, which was founded four years ago as part of the Mofet B'Yehuda 
technological incubator in Kiryat Arba, is poised to turn the problem into 
opportunity. According to Lerman, the spark behind the company originated 
with Ari Sofer, a sewage sludge disposal specialist with 20 years experience 
working with wastewater treatment plants both in the United States and 
Israel.

"Ari brought the idea of transforming sewage sludge into liquid fuel to the 
incubator program in Israel," he told ISRAEL21c. "But while he had the idea, 
not being a scientist he didn't know how to go about implementing it and 
looked for someone who had experience in the scientific applications that he 
was talking about."

Sofer found that person in Dr. Yafim Plopski, a scientist from the former 
Soviet Union who emigrated to Israel 15 years ago with a PhD in chemical and 
technology of fuels.

"He had worked there in the process of extraction of fuel from organic 
material, and the worked for 10 years in Israel as chief scientist with a 
company called Pama which spent many years to produce oil from shale," 
explained Lerman. "They built a huge power plant in the Negev and actually 
developed a good process. But at the time, the price of oil didn't justify 
enough interest in that kind of development, and the company eventually 
closed."

That was good news for Sofer and BioPetrol however, as Plopski joined the 
company in the capacity of chief scientist, a position he's held since the 
company was launched. With seed money provided for two years by the Israeli 
government's Office of the Chief Scientist, the BioPetrol team began working 
on a process to convert sludge into liquid, synthetic oil.

According to Herman, conventional methods of sewage sludge disposal - land 
filling, ocean dumping, compost and incineration, are causing irrevocable 
environmental damage. This is seen in the contamination of underground water 
reservoirs and fertile land, the pollution of oceans and the emission of 
hazardous gases into the air. Sludge fertilizer is already banned in some 
European countries.

The BioPetrol process is aimed recycling sewage sludge which contain a high 
degree of organic matter through a thermo chemical pyrolysis process in 
order to recover hydrocarbons that make up the structure of sewage sludge. 
Pyrolysis of sewage sludge produces oil, gas and char products. Their 
technology is capable of processing carbon wastes, other than sewage sludge, 
including agri-wastes, bagasse, pulp and paper residues, tannery sludge and 
other end-of-life products such as plastics, tires and the organics in 
municipal solid waste.

"We finally arrived at a process that converts sludge to liquid, synthetic 
oil through pirolysis, using high temperatures and high pressure. But our 
innovation was implementing process with lower temperature and pressure - 
more moderate conditions, thus safer," said Herman.

Having graduated from the incubator program and now standing on their own, 
BioPetrol is ready spread its wings. They're about to move from Kiryat Arba 
to new facilities in Ramat Hovav, and more importantly, they have plans to 
build a pilot plant within a sewage treatment plant, most likely in the 
Jerusalem area, according to Lerman.

"We're about to sign an agreement with an Israeli chemical company which 
will finance the plant. That will be our first major outside investment 
since we left the incubator program," he said, adding that the cost of plant 
would be approximately $1 million.

"The sooner we have the plant set up and prove it can work on a big scope, 
the sky's the limit. Each and every small town and big city with a sewage 
treatment plant will be potential customers."

According to Herman, BioPetrol's solution is a win-win one for all 
concerned.

"Sludge is the one of the biggest environmental problems throughout the 
world. Incineration is the only option now, and it costs a lot of money and 
emits harmful gasses from the plant. Our solution poses no environmental 
problems at all. After the transformation of the oil, all that's left is 5% 
of ashes which can be buried and forgotten," he said.

And in a neat case of an environmental circle, BioPetrol's ultimate goal is 
use the oil produced to power the operation of the sewage treatment plant - 
and their sludge treatment plant.

"The process will finance itself."

http://www.israel21c.org/bin/en.jsp?enDispWho=Articles%5El1492&enPage=BlankPage&enDisplay=view&enDispWhat=object&enVersion=0&enZone=Technology