Bergen utilities converting sewage into valuable energy source
MARCH 29, 2015, 11:33 PM LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, MARCH 29, 2015, 11:40 PM
BY JAMES M. O’NEILL
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
The bright orange flame that routinely danced from a pipe on the roof of Ridgewood’s sewage treatment plant did not exactly serve as a welcome beacon for Christopher Rutishauser, Ridgewood’s public works director. Instead, it became a nagging reminder of lost opportunity.
The facility was flaring off methane, a greenhouse gas created when bacteria break down sewage.
“I’m cheap,” Rutishauser said. “I saw the flame and saw money being wasted. I thought there had to be a way to reuse the methane.”
Rutishauser and Bob Gillow, the plant supervisor, researched the issue and came up with a plan to capture the methane and use it as fuel for a generator that produces electricity. The facility covers its own energy needs and has excess electricity to sell to the grid.
At wastewater treatment plants in New Jersey and across the country, the methane once flared off as waste is being used to produce electricity. Sewage has become a money-making resource. And following the success of these pioneers, other agencies are starting to take a look as well.
