Posts Tagged ‘wastewater system’
Recently I was approached by a marketing professional who has more than 30 years in the water industry. At one point, she asked me: so what do water companies think about your products? I explained that we have received positive feedback from nearly everyone, including water providers, water treatment plants, and state environmental agencies.
Sure, if a Brac System was installed in every home across the country, we may receive a little push back because those companies would see huge declines in their revenue. But for now everyone has been supportive.
And here’s why: most water companies are underpaid and overburdened. In times of drought, they are stretched very thin. Their infrastructure is aging rapidly, and anything that safely reduces the wear and tear on their systems is a welcome addition.
Since “low impact development” are buzz words these days, let me say a thing or two about gray water recycling and land development. With a Brac System installed in the home, a family of four will save around 30,000 gallons of water every year. If you have a community of 50 homes, that’s a potential annual savings of 1.5 million gallons.
On top of the savings, these systems reduce a community’s overall water footprint. That means that homebuilders can often fit more homes onto a given plot of land, due to the reduction in fresh water consumption and wastewater treatment.
Hmmm. More homes. Less land. And less water. Isn’t that good for everyone?
By Mike Wolterbeek
A successful University of Nevada, Reno renewable energy research project is moving from the lab to the real world in a demonstration-scale system to turn wastewater sludge into electricity.
The new patent-pending, low-cost, energy-efficient technology is scheduled to be set up in the Truckee Meadows Water Reclamation Facility next month following the recent signing of an interlocal agreement with the cities of Reno and Sparks.
“Our plan is to test the unit by about May 15,” Chuck Coronella, principle investigator for the research project and an associate professor of chemical engineering, said. “We’re designing, building and assembling a continuous-feed system that will ultimately be used to generate electricity. We’ll run experiments throughout the summer, creating a usable dried product from the sludge.”
The experimental carbon-neutral system will process 20 pounds of sludge per hour, drying it at modest temperatures into solid fuel that will be analyzed for its suitability to be used for fuel through gasification and, in a commercial operation, ultimately converted to electricity. The refrigerator-size demonstration unit will help researchers determine the optimum conditions for a commercial-sized operation.
