Tuesday, November 23, 2010

City to turn crap into fuel

View more news videos at: http://www.nbcnewyork.com/video.


From NBC:

We flush it and it's out of our lives. But does anyone give a you-know-what about our waste going to waste?

"We do," says Commissioner Cas Holloway of the City's Department of Environmental Protection. "And what we're trying to do is take what is pure waste and turn it into a valuable resource."

The water from every toilet that flushes in the Rockaway section of Queens ends up at the Rockaway wastewater treatment plant. But instead of just being treated and dumped in the nearest waterway, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has bigger plans for that waste.

It's part of a pilot program that converts human wastewater into fuel.

"Now we literally have the ability to make gasoline-grade fuel out of waste water," Holloway said. "It's an environmental benefit, and it would reduce energy costs for the agency."

The experiment exposes wastewater to sunlight, causing photosynthesis. The algae that grows is shipped to a lab to be converted to biofuel.

If the technology works and proves cost efficient the city estimates it could power 2,800 cars a day on just 10 percent of the city's waste stream.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

fucking lol

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a good idea to get rid of some waste and reuse.

Now can we do this with astorians.com and Why leave Astoria which has got to be the most pathetic, naive blog with a facebook look. They can't even address the crime spike in Astoria realistically.
No instead with the cars stolen,
broken into or dismantled, their concerned with the type of car so they can isolate it in their child like minds to one type of car that is desired and not the one they own.
The site Why Leave Astoria reminds me of the Brady bunch with wanna be actors and comedians. No kids real comedians are few and far between. And they seem to think the Newtown Creek will actually get cleaned up with the 50 to a 100 years of toxic stew in it?
Wrong and the money will go to faux parks and condos.

But I digress. This idea of recycling waste is great so lets hope its not just PR from bloomberg. There still will be rancid smell from the sewers backing up in Queens from the over population.

Babs said...

Bloomberg's his best idea yet.

Hope it's successful.

Anonymous said...

"They can't even address the crime spike in Astoria realistically.
No instead with the cars stolen,
broken into or dismantled, their concerned with the type of car so they can isolate it in their child like minds to one type of car that is desired and not the one they own."

I guess not everyone in Astoria is a frightened wimpy bi-polar idiot like you are -

Anonymous said...

This is Bloomberg's forte, turning crap into yuck!

Anonymous said...

My crap ran for office in Queens - and it won!

MOBY said...

My crap ran for office in Queens - and it won!

Thanks for your kind words. As you can see, my boobs could use the support.

Anonymous said...

Lets give one big flush to the City Council and see how much fuel they produce. They all wreak of shit.

Anonymous said...

And they call it Flushing because...?

velvethead said...

Photosynthesis? Oh, yeah. That process by which plants convert carbon dioxide, you know, that evil greenhouse gas, into oxygen.
Yeah, right. Geez, any concerns here about carbon footprints? climate change? Stuff like that?
I guess when Bloomie says it's ok, it's ok then.

Anonymous said...

All you have to do is dehydrate with acid then hydrogenate with catalyst to get alkanes. Cheaper and smarter than ethanol which rusts your tanks and engines.

Timmah said...

When I went to the DEP tour of Newtown Creek's plant during Open House New York, the fellow giving the info tour mentioned that we were producing some waste wafers could be used as fuel ... but NY State didn't have laws to burn them. We were shipping them out as free energy to Colorado, I think. Political SNAFU.

HAL9000 said...

Crap into Fuel?

Sounds great in theory,
but wait till you drive
300 miles to visit family
in a crap fueled vehicle.

No one will invite you back
when with that stank all over
you!