Sludge Watch ==> Sewage Sludge to Power Water Desalination Project - Malta

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

This may be the answer to the Salinas Valley E coli problem.

In California they like to think sewage sludge is clean enough for 
fertilizer and sewage effluent (pretty name: reclaimed water) is near good 
enough to drink.

In the European story below they propose to burn sewage sludge for energy 
and use the energy to power a desalination plant.

California - eat and drink from the industrially contaminated fecal 
wastes....i
n Europe - sludge - free clean food and clean water to drink.


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Waste to water feasibility study being drawn up
by David Lindsay


A feasibility study being drawn up by a team of Maltese and German experts 
is looking into a so-called waste to water system that could offer the 
possibility of desalinating Malta’s water supply at a fraction of the cost 
of today’s electrically-powered reverse osmosis plants.

The concept involves using the high calorific value sewage sludge that will 
be produced by the waste water treatment plants planed for Malta and Gozo to 
desalinate sea water.

“The waste to water project involves using certain waste and taking the 
energy from the waste to produce heat. That heat is then used to desalinate 
sea water to produce fresh water, which is a problem for Malta,” explains 
Helmut Schnurer, a German waste expert. Dr Schnurer is in Malta as part of 
an EU-funded Maltese-German twinning project on implementing producer 
responsibility directives.

With today’s high price of fuel, the cost of powering Malta’s reverse 
osmosis plants has risen in tandem with the cost of electricity, and the 
costs are increasing as water consumption levels rise.

While different means of desalination are being studied, one option is to 
use sewage sludge collected by the three waste water treatment facilities in 
Malta and Gozo, sludge that is currently discharged into the sea. The sludge 
would be dried and its high calorific value used to produce vaporised sea 
water. The vapour is then condensed into desalinated water.

“I think it would be a good idea to achieve two goals at the same time: 
solving the waste problem and solving, to some degree, the water problem,” 
Dr Schnurer added.

“We are currently working out a feasibility study on what could be done 
about the problem, what the cost would be and what actual system could be 
used. We are also determining if we could be successful in getting funding 
for a private plant from the EU.

“If successful in Malta, I think we should have a German-Maltese partnership 
to develop such a solution for other islands in the Mediterranean and other 
parts of the world where fresh water supply is becoming an increasing 
problem.”

The feasibility study is expected to be concluded over the coming months, 
after which the Maltese authorities will decide whether to adopt the study’s 
conclusions.

Such a scheme would complement the waste to energy scheme underway at 
Maghtab and the engineered landfills at Ghallis and Taz Zwejra, which are 
expected to provide electricity for some 3,000 households.

http://www.independent.com.mt/news.asp?newsitemid=39954