Sludge Watch ==> LA pumps sludge underground - Hopes for high pressure methane production

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludge Watch Admin:

Ok boys and girls.  Are you sitting comfortably?  Then we will begin.


Los Angeles has decided add water to some of its sewage sludge and pump the 
mixture a mile underground  at Terminal Island off the coast of Long Beach.  
  The sludge slurry will be pumped into hot salty underground area where 
experts say it will generate methane under pressure.  LA will try to remove 
the methane for fuel.

This underground area is very close to a seismic fault.  So they will be 
pumping putrescible waste very near a fault line to see what happens.  Yes, 
boys and girls, California spent $35 million to retrofit the bridge to 
Terminal Island against an earthquake since in runs right over the Palos 
Verdez fault.  And now they are using the area under Terminal Island as a 
high pressure methane digester for thousands of tons of sewage sludge.

read about the bridge project:
http://www.wai.com/Structures/Projects/projs-seismic.html

Sludge Watch will be watching....from a safe distance.

To read more about the testing undertaken to justify the project go to:
www.terralog.com/article/UIST%20Book%20Article.pdf
....................................





http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed=Science&article=UPI-1-20070406-13292300-bc-us-sludge.xml




LA to turn sludge into electricity

LOS ANGELES, April 6 (UPI) -- Los Angeles wants to turn wastewater sludge 
into energy using a process that would cut greenhouse emissions and reduce 
truck traffic.

The city says the renewable energy project, which is expected to cost $3 
million to $4 million, and begin running by next spring, is a 
first-of-its-kind in the United States, The Los Angeles Times said.

The project, unveiled Thursday at the Terminal Island Water Reclamation 
Plant, would use sludge to produce electricity for about 3,000 homes, the 
newspaper said.

Organic material left over from treated wastewater would be injected into 
depleted oil and gas reservoirs underground. High temperatures and pressure 
will create methane gas to power fuel cells on the surface.

The process will also dissolve carbon dioxide, removing the equivalent of 
exhaust from 3,200 cars each year over the next five years. It will also 
reduce by half the 750 tons of treated solid waste trucked out of Los 
Angeles each day, the newspaper said.

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Green pilot project tries to establish the power of sludge
Los Angeles breaks ground on a plant that will turn tons of biosolids into 
methane gas on Terminal Island.
By Lee Peterson
STAFF WRITER

It's one power plant that's not likely to ever run out of fuel.

That's because about nine months after engineers start shooting several 
hundred tons per day of sewage sludge more than a mile beneath Terminal 
Island, a steady supply of methane gas will start arising from the decaying 
material.



Originally proposed in 2001 as an outlet for a major chunk of Los Angeles 
sewage treatment plants' sludge output, the first-of-its-kind, deep-earth 
injection scheme was heralded at its groundbreaking Thursday as a clean, 
green "renewable" energy project because the fuel cell powered by the 
methane will produce up to 3 megawatts of electricity.

"Today is a great day, because L.A. is leading the way in green power," said 
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Thursday, as he emceed the 
celebratory groundbreaking ceremony.

While the project will employ decades-old technology for injecting oil field 
wastes underground, this kind of system has never been used to dispose of 
sewage sludge. For many years, the city has trucked the material -- which 
officials like to call "biosolids" -- about 130 miles to Kern County farms, 
where it is used, but not always welcomed, as a nitrogen-rich soil 
amendment. Although it was later struck down by a judge, Kern County voters 
passed a measure banning by this year the importation of sewage sludge.

Construction of the "Terminal Island Renewable Energy" project begins May 1 
and engineers hope by January to start sending the sludge to porous 
sediments deep down, where natural pressure and heat will break down the 
material. About nine months after that, engineers will start tapping the 
methane gas as it arises from the sludge. The city has a five-year permit to 
run the pilot project.

The plant is being built at the site of the Terminal Island Treatment Plant, 
a relatively small operation, which produces about 50 tons per day of sewage 
sludge.

Most of the 400 tons per day to be injected will be trucked in from the 
Hyperion Treatment Plant near Los Angeles International Airport. The project 
will use brine output from the Terminal Island Treatment Plant to mix with 
the sludge, achieving a gravylike consistency that can be easily injected 
into the earth.

While the project will allow the city to curtail 45 truck trips a month to 
Kern County, it will bring more traffic to the port, which is already 
dealing with an abundance of truck trips.

Eventually, if the $3.3 million pilot project becomes a permanent facility, 
it's hoped that the city can deliver the sludge not by truck but by 
pipeline, making use of two existing 12-inch diameter pipelines that link 
the Terminal Island and Hyperion treatment plants, said Omar Moghaddam, Los 
Angeles Bureau of Sanitation Regulatory Affairs Division manager.

Because the sludge will be injected more than a mile deep, it will be about 
a half mile beneath the closest groundwater aquifer, which is a substantial 
buffer zone, Moghaddam said. On the way down, the sludge will be enclosed in 
a thick, stainless steel pipe insulated by concrete.

The city spared no hoopla for Thursday's groundbreaking, despite the facts 
that it is only a pilot project, it has never been done before, and if 
successful will generate just 3 megawatts of peak power. (According to 
California Energy Commission documents, the city's Scattergood Generating 
Station near LAX can produce up to 803 megawatts, for example. The city 
needs about 6,000 megawatts during peak demand times in August.)

Moghaddam and officials from Terralog Technologies USA, the Arcadia company 
that will run the plant, said the effusiveness is justified, given the 
plant's potential to serve as a model for other cities with a biosolids 
disposal problem.

"A lot of other cities are looking to Los Angeles," said Richard Knowles, a 
member of the investment group backing Terralog.

Harbor Area Councilwoman Janice Hahn acknowledged at Thursday's ceremony 
that she was skeptical when she first heard the proposal six years ago.

"I knew we had this stuff and I knew we had to dispose of it," Hahn said, 
"and I wasn't sure I wanted this under my harbor."

But once she learned more about the project's benefits and saw the Bureau of 
Sanitation's outreach to neighborhood councils and others in her district, 
she became supportive of the project.

Also supportive is Tracy Egoscue, executive director of the environmental 
group Santa Monica Baykeeper.

"Once again, the city of Los Angeles is leading the way," Egoscue said.

http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/articles/6900952.html?showAll=y&c=y