INNOVATION May-June 2014

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How the Benefits Accrue The benefits of MicroSludge technology are anticipated to occur at several cost points throughout the treatment system. By producing more biogas from WAS and speed-

ing up the digestion rate, it will become more economical to clean biogas for use as a fuel. The WAS from a treatment plant serving 250,000 people has the potential to generate 20MWh per year of renewable electricity or the equivalent in biogas. Secondly, this treatment process reduces the amount of sludge that must be disposed of, usually through expensive trucking to a landfill site or an incinerator. Currently, even a modestly sized wastewater treatment facility can send up to 20 truckloads of waste to a landfill site weekly. As well as reducing sludge disposal costs and increasing gas production, the technology can enable a significant increase in digester capacity, therefore reducing the need to spend capital to add digester capacity. CEO and President Gordon Skene says this technology is an opportunity for tax savings in larger municipalities. “If you

MicroSludge cell disrupter.

look at many city regions such as Metro Vancouver and Toronto and their growing populations, they are facing added costs for wastewater treatment that will increase municipal taxes by 50% over the next decade. It is not just here but in all cities in the developed world.” To handle wastewater for a city with a population of one million, MicroSludge can be installed into the existing system for a capital cost of approximately $15 million, eliminating the need for another digester (with a capital cost of closer to $100 million). Wastewater treatment facilities, says Skene, are one of the largest consumers of energy. The ability to generate more biogas from these facilities becomes an attractive feature. Increased biogas production has shifted the economics, especially for treatment plants that want to capture biogas for internal use, use it in vehicles or sell it to a supplier as pipeline- grade renewable natural gas (RNG). “We have been doing a lot of work to improve the economics of the technology,” agrees Neill. During the last five years, the system has been refined and the first full- scale adoption of the MicroSludge system by Metro Vancouver, in combination with biogas clean-up technology, will have the ability to input RNG to the FortisBC natural gas pipeline, yielding a revenue stream from what was a waste stream. Broadening the Application Two systems are now successfully in place. Metro Vancouver will be start up the first municipal system in 2015 at its Lulu Island wastewater treatment plant. A second system, a prototype for industrial application, has been installed at Catalyst Paper’s Crofton plant and has been running for three years. The $6.5 million demonstration project turns waste into renewable energy. “We now have three years of data and we have fabulous results,” says Skene. The data has shown that for pulp mill operations, MicroSludge’s payback period is about three to four years. This is accomplished through chemical- and energy-savings, as well as biogas generation that can displace fossil fuel burned at the plant. Skene also points out that the technology is significantly reducing the size of an- aerobic digesters required to get rid of the waste sludge at a pulp mill. Where a pulp mill would typically produce four truckloads a day of waste material, MicroSludge could reduce that number by half.

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