Sludge Watch ==> Human manure eyed as energy source in Vancouver BC

[Maureen Reilly]

Human manure eyed as energy source



By Jeff Nagel
Black Press
Mar 01 2007


What you flush down the toilet may some day go up a smoke stack.

The Greater Vancouver Regional District will study the potential to burn its 
biosolids – a sludge composted from human waste at some of the region’s 
sewage treatment plants – as an energy source.

The GVRD has issued a call for consultants to “evaluate energy production 
options” using GVRD biosolids as a fuel.

It follows a debate last fall on whether to continue to try to use the human 
manure as a fertilizer or land application, or incinerate it in a modern 
waste-to-energy plant.

Vancouver consultant Dr. Michael Easton is among those who has already urged 
the GVRD to go with a burner.

“We really need to treat biosolids as toxic waste,” he said, adding 
incineration should be the first choice.

“It will destroy all the contaminants and chemicals and parasites and so on 
that are not destroyed in processing.”

The GVRD now spends $5 million a year to recycle about 50,000 tonnes of 
biosolids, mostly at its Annacis Island treatment plant.

But that’s forecast to climb – particularly after secondary sewage treatment 
starts at the Iona and Lions Gate treatment plants.

Most recycled biosolids are now used as land treatments at mines, landfills 
and gravel pits or to fertilize rangeland and tree farms. It’s also made 
into a soil product used by some area municipalities as landscaping 
material.

But it’s getting harder to find destinations to take enough of the material 
and thousands of tonnes are increasingly being stockpiled.

In some cases biosolid use as a fertilizer is limited because of regulations 
on metal content, and in other cases land owners simply don’t want to use 
it.

“Concern about the product (real or perceived), customer’s business 
considerations, transport distances, accessibility to the land and cost 
limit the amount of land available for applying biosolids,” a GVRD staff 
report says.

It also warns too much fertilizer is already used on land in the Lower 
Mainland, causing environmental degradation, and increased use of biosolids 
would add to the problem.

Incinerating biosolids could end up being part of a larger scheme to turn 
household garbage into energy – the GVRD is weighing that among a series of 
options to replace its Cache Creek landfill.

The consultants chosen will identify waste-to-energy options for biosolid 
incineration and the resulting financial, environmental and social costs and 
benefits.

http://www.burnabynewsleader.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=41&cat=23&id=843135&more