The idea of turning our waste into energy we all can use has been around for awhile.  Now a professor at the University of California - Davis, has developed a new technique to get more energy out of that garbage.  Ruihong Zhang has been working on her Biogas Energy Project for the past eight years.  Now the university has taken the steps to acquire the license on the product and a power company has even signed on to adapt the unit for commercial use.

The piece of technology Zhang has been toiling away on is called an “anaerobic phased solids digester”.   This type of machine is already in use at wastewater treatment plants and livestock farms around the nation, breaking down the sewage into usable gas.  Zhang has apparently improved the technology to allow the use of more wastes like food scraps, yard clippings and animal manure.  It also apparently cuts the processing time in half and produces hydrogen and methane.  Other systems apparently only produce methane.  That would be a true energy revolution, just like bio-diesel.  Can you imagine the food scraps we don’t eat and animal manure being turned into a fuel for our car?  That would be truly amazing.

UC Davis estimates that about 5 million tons of food scraps go into California landfills every year.  If one ton can produce enough energy for the average day at 10 homes, that year’s worth of food could power 50 million houses for one day or 130,000 houses for the entire year.

If you’d like to read more about Zhang’s system, head over to the website of UC Davis.

Posted: November 28th, 2007 under Energy, Gas & Oil, Recycling, Renewable Energy, Sustainable living.
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