Anaerobic Digestion—Taking It To The Next Level

It is no longer unusual for a wastewater treatment plant—or resource recovery facility as many are now called—to produce its own energy.

“Initially if a facility was able to use the methane that’s produced in anaerobic digesters just enough to run their boilers and heat up their tanks that made them happy,” says Craig Martin of WesTech in an interview with Water Online Radio.

Today’s resource recovery facilities are taking anaerobic digestion even further. Many want to augment the anaerobic digestion process to be able to produce more gas, turning to outside sources to do so. 

“You see facilities that are looking to bring in other waste products; fats, oils, and grease from restaurants and what have you, to build up the gas production, to convert it to other usable gases, clean it, and some are even running power generation,” says Martin. “So I think it’s going to be a continued development of that market and one that we’re going to take a closer look at.”

To hear Craig Martin’s full interview with Water Online Radio click below