Biofuel made from human excrement has become easier to produce

Corinne Drennan, a bioenergy technologies researcher at PNNL, said in a statement, “There is plenty of carbon in municipal wastewater sludge and interestingly, there are also fats. The fats or lipids appear to facilitate the conversion of other materials in the wastewater such as toilet paper, keep the sludge moving through the reactor, and produce a very high quality biocrude that, when refined, yields fuels such as gasoline, diesel, and jet fuels.”

Using HTL, PNNL estimates that those 34 billion gallons of sewage a day could be theoretically turned into 30 million gallons of refined oil per year. Each American, on average, could generate two to three gallons of the unrefined biocrude per year. (In the future, grandmothers around the country could have another reason to push you to eat more: “You look too skinny! Do you eat? Think about American oil independence!” as another spoonful of casserole gets unloaded on your plate.)

The new method could be a big help to municipalities that have pledged to reduce their waste to meet sustainability goals. PNNL scientists have licensed their process to a Salt Lake City-based company called Genifuel, which is working with the Metro Vancouver group to build a demonstration plant in the Canadian city. Darrell Mussatto, chair of Metro Vancouver’s Utilities Committee, said that the group will fund about half of the $8 million to $9 million CAD ($6 million to $6.8 million USD) that the demonstration plant is estimated to cost. Metro Vancouver will seek external funding for the other half of the money needed to fund the plant. If all goes to plan, the demonstration plant would come online in 2018.