Brown and Caldwell Collaborates on Groundbreaking Waste-To-Energy Study
Oct 09, 2017
Department of Energy grant focuses on creating renewable fuels at wastewater treatment plants
Brown and Caldwell, a leading environmental engineering and construction firm, is playing an integral role on a national team that will plan for and design a pilot plant to produce clean hydrocarbon fuels at a municipal wastewater treatment facility. The project, funded by a Department of Energy (DOE) research grant and SoCalGas, and led by long-time research partner Water Environment & Reuse Foundation (WE&RF), will use breakthrough technology to produce fuels such as gasoline, jet fuel, diesel and renewable natural gas from wastewater solids.
The technology, called Hydrothermal Processing, converts waste solids from a wastewater treatment plant into biocrude oil and methane gas. The biocrude and methane replaces conventional oil and gas, providing green fuels with dramatically-reduced net new carbon emissions. The renewable methane gas can be used in the same ways as natural gas. Biocrude produced in the system will be refined in an existing refinery, while the methane gas will be sold for transport in the gas pipeline system or used onsite to offset needs elsewhere in the plant. In addition to producing renewable energy, Hydrothermal Processing has the potential to dramatically reduce CO2 emissions at wastewater treatment plants by replacing the anaerobic digesters.
Brown and Caldwell Vice President John Willis, a renowned expert in biosolids and energy recovery, will lead the BC team in quantifying the life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions generated from the hydrothermal and bio-crude refining processes to help evaluate the potential for this clean renewable fuel under the federal Renewable Fuel and California’s Low-Carbon Fuel Standards.
"We are excited to be a part of this important work,” Willis said. "Demonstrating that we can convert wastewater solids into renewable hydrocarbon fuels, while replacing fossil fuels and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, would transform wastewater treatment.”
According to another team member, DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Lab, if the process is fully implemented in wastewater treatment facilities across the United States, the technology could produce more than 2 billion gallons of gasoline and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 17 million tons per year.
This summer, the DOE will validate the consortium’s concept of the technology. A nine-month feasibility study will follow and if results are promising, the design and construction of a pilot plant could begin in 2020.
Willis, who currently serves on WE&RF’s research council, has spent over 25 years helping municipal utilities develop innovative solutions to combat inefficiency and maximize energy use. His groundbreaking work includes the first Class-A thermophilic anaerobic digestion facility in the United States, innovative Class-A digestion and biogas-to-vehicle-fuel upgrades, as well as the application of thermal hydrolysis/digestion/gas-use for DC Water, Hampton Roads Sanitation District in Virginia, the city of Raleigh Public Works Department in North Carolina, and the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission in Maryland.
Other members of the consortium include Genifuel Corp. with technology from the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; Merrick and Co.; Sempra Energy’s Los Angeles-based Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas); Texas-based Tesoro Corp.; Metro Vancouver; MicroBio Engineering, and over a dozen utility partners. Central Contra Costa Sanitary District in the San Francisco Bay Area will host the pilot system.
More News and Articles
Aug 28, 2024
News
ITpipes Secures $20M to Transform Water Infrastructure Management
ITpipes announced it has secured $20 million in equity financing from Trilogy Search Partners and Miramar Equity Partners.
Known for its trusted and user-friendly platform, ITpipes …
Aug 26, 2024
News
Professor Dr.-Ing. Dietrich Stein
With deep sadness we announce the loss of our founder and partner Prof Dr Dietrich Stein at the age of 85.
Engineers around the globe are thankful for his dedication to the inventions in the fields of sewers, …
Aug 26, 2024
News
PPI Releases New Installation Guide for PE4710 Pipe
PPI’s MAB-11-2024 Covers HDPE Water Pipelines Up to 60-in. Diameter and 10,000-ft Long Pulls
Developed by the Municipal Advisory Board (MAB) – and published with the help of the members of the …
Aug 23, 2024
News
Faster wide-scale leak detection now within reach
Mass deployment of connected leak loggers is being made possible by the latest technology, writes Tony Gwynne, global leakage solutions director, Ovarro
Water companies in England and Wales are …
Aug 21, 2024
News
Kraken awakens customer service potential in water
The innovative customer service platform Kraken has made a successful transfer from energy to water. Ahead of their presentation at UKWIR’s annual conference, Portsmouth Water chief executive …
Aug 19, 2024
News
Predicting the toxicity of chemicals with AI
Researchers at Eawag and the Swiss Data Science Center have trained AI algorithms with a comprehensive ecotoxicological dataset. Now their machine learning models can predict how toxic chemicals are …
Aug 16, 2024
News
Goodbye water loss: Trenchless pipe renewal in Brazil
Pipe renewal in Brazil
How do you stop water loss through leaks in old pipe systems without major environmental impacts and restrictions? The answer: with trenchless technology, or more precisely …
Aug 14, 2024
Article
Impact of high-temperature heat storage on groundwater
In a recently launched project, the aquatic research institute Eawag is investigating how the use of borehole thermal energy storage (BTES) affects the surrounding soil, the groundwater …
Aug 12, 2024
News
Watercare completes East Coast Bays sewer link
Watercare has successfully finished the final connection on the East Coast Bays link sewer at Windsor Park in New Zealand.
Much of the East Coast Bays sewer link was installed using horizontal directional …
Aug 09, 2024
Article
Innovative water solutions for sustainable cities
Cities need to become more sustainable and use their water resources more efficiently. Managing water in local small-scale cycles is one possible solution. A new white paper by Eawag, the University …
Aug 07, 2024
Article
How digital technologies contribute to universal drinking water
Digital water technologies have an important role in ensuring universal access to safe drinking water by 2030, that is according to a new report from the World Health Organisation. …
Aug 05, 2024
News
Knowledge transfer on sustainable water infrastructure in India
India’s fast-growing cities need an efficient infrastructure for water supply and wastewater disposal. A research cooperation, is therefore supporting the development of a sustainable …
Contact
Brown and Caldwell
Diana Leonard
201 North Civic Drive, Suite 300
CA 94596 Walnut Creek
Phone:
+1 925 210 2216
Fax:
+1 925 937 9026