The Buzz

New York City Pilots Wastewater to Butanol

November 20, 2010
AlgaeIndustryMagazine.com

rom Sergio Hernandez at the Village Voice comes word that New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection has a new pilot program that will convert algae at a Queens waste-water treatment plant into biofuel for cars, by using an “Algal Turf Scrubber” at the Rockaway Wastewater Treatment Plant to harvest and process algae into butanol.

The algae scrubbing technique, developed in the 1980s by a scientist at the Smithsonian Institution, will cost the city $387,000, officials said. The project is a joint effort between the DEP, the University of Arkansas, and two private environmental firms.

“This project is still in the pilot phase, but the results are promising,” DEP commissioner Cas Holloway said. “We can convert algae grown from the waste water New Yorkers produce every day to high-quality fuel that can be put right in your gas tank.”

The turf scrubber uses two metal troughs to simulate stream currents and promote algae growth by flooding the algae with 60 gallons of treated wastewater per minute. After two weeks, the algae is dried using powerful vacuums and sent to the University of Arkansas’ chemical engineering department, which converts the dried algae into butanol. Supporters of butanol say it is a better fuel than ethanol because it’s cleaner, more versatile, and packs more energy per gallon.

Jackie Roberts, Director of Sustainable Technologies for the Environmental Defense Fund, said the algal scrubber had “a lot of potential. It’s something that’s definitely viable, and something we’re going to see 10 years down the road as people look at it more and more, particularly for wastewater treatment plants.

“I think a wastewater treatment plant, in general, is kind of an untapped resource,” she said. “You could almost turn a wastewater treatment plant into a mini-energy plant, someday.”