Sludge Watch ==> Energy from sludge digester gases in Rockford Illinois

[maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca]

Local News
Area investment in renewable energy celebrated

By Corina Curry
ROCKFORD REGISTER STAR




ROCKFORD ­— Only in a world of multimillion-dollar high-tech gadgetry can 
the stuff we flush down the toilets become the electricity that helps power 
the sewage treatment plant.


That’s the new world at the Rock River Water Reclamation District, where a 
$3.3 million combined heat and power facility is turning our waste into 
biogas to fire the boilers of the machines that digest the sludge.


Installing the equipment was a four-year undertaking and was celebrated 
Tuesday by reclamation district staff and local dignitaries, including U.S. 
Rep. Don Manzullo, who helped secure $550,000 in federal funding for the 
renewable-energy project. The equipment went on line Feb. 15.


Local leaders applauded the district for its vision while attending an open 
house at the district’s 90-acre headquarters, 3333 Kishwaukee St.


The combined heat and power facility consists of three 825-kilowatt 
engine/generator units that burn the biogas created by the new 
sludge-digesting machines. The engines generate 15,000 kilowatt-hours of 
electricity a day. The plant uses about 45,000 kilowatt-hours a day.


The new equipment is saving the district about $40,000 a month in electrical 
costs, said district Director Steve Graceffa. It also is reducing the amount 
of sludge that the district needs to dispose of by 60 percent.


Despite the cost savings, the district instituted an 18 percent rate 
increase in April.


“As public entities, we no longer build something in static,” said district 
board President Kent Logan. “We have 1,100 miles of underground pipe, some 
of which is 80 to 90 years old. What we built needs to be taken care of.”


Staff writer Corina Curry can be reached at 815-987-1395 or 
ccurry at rrstar.com.

http://www.rrstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060530/NEWS/105300055