Clean Water or Clean Energy? How About Both…

Most people do not know that our sewer systems are a lot like our arteries, if or when they become unhealthy so do we. You go about your day rinsing dishes off in the sink and then tossing them into the dish washer and never give it a second thought. Where does all the stuck on food go that those famous commercials claim to get rid of? Does it just magically disappear? No it travels through our sewer systems and over time builds up on the sides, just like plaque in our arteries. This leads to overflows and sewer back-ups. Costing millions in clean up, and yes there are systems in water treatment that try to rid our waters of this mess but they not always as effective as they should be. Each year sewer back-up cause about 10 billion gallons of untreated water back into our water systems. We all know how the world works and this ends up costing everybody more money, for clean up, research for prevention, and repair. So wouldn’t it be nice if we could just bypass all of that mess? We could just put a stop to flushing food waste down our drains, but that’s just crazy talk, no one would listen anyway. 

There’s a company that was founded in 2004 called BlackGold that is converting this sewer mess into biofuels. They have set up a system that cleans out sewer pipes and separates the water and fat, oil, and greases. Normally when this happens (if this happens) by regular waste water treatment, it’s then trucked over to a landfill where it is left to deteriorate and that’s no fast process. They’re also using fuel for the trucks to move the FOG to sit needlessly in a landfill. So once BlackGold separates the water and the FOG it is then converted in to clean fuel. I would like to add BlackGold’s method for separation does not include the use of chemicals. If the treatment plant adopts this method of separation, the fuel can either be used on site so they could have clean fuel burning work trucks or sold for profit which would help everybody in the long run. In 2006 BlackGold road tested 50 vehicles for 20,000 miles and that included light passenger cars all the way to school buses.