SAN ANTONIO, Texas
This Texan town is taking recycling to a whole new level: turning the city's collective poop into renewable energy. Quite a metamorphosis, from caca to cash.
Ameresco Inc., a Framingham, Massachusetts-based energy services company has offered to buy captured methane gas generated from the San Antonio Water System treatment of "biosolids" (a nice neutral word for human waste sewage) for $250,000. The 140,000 tons of biosolids will yield at least 900,000 cubic feet of natural gas daily for the next 20 years. Representatives for SAWS explain that this amount is "enough gas to fill seven commercial blimps or 1,250 tanker trucks each day."
"We're very pleased that we can capture and sell this gas, which is good for San Antonio's air quality and puts this renewable energy resource to work for San Antonio." Steve Clouse, the water system's chief operating officer.
It will take a year or two for the facilities to be built, but in the meantime SAWS is already using their human garbage for fertilizing lawns and selling methane byproducts to other institutions.
