- Title: New York City turns organic waste into renewable energy
- Date: 2nd August 2017
- Summary: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (JULY 28, 2017) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF BROOKLYN RESIDENT, SARA SCHIWAL, AND DAUGHTER, NORA, PUTTING VEGETABLE WASTE INTO COMPOST CONTAINER SCHIWAL PICKING UP CONTAINER, WALKING OUTSIDE WITH NORA SCHIWAL AND NORA EMPTYING BIN IN LARGE BROWN COMPOST BIN (SOUNDBITE) (English) BROOKLYN RESIDENT, SARA SCHIWAL, SAYING: "Everything, all food products - whether they are good, bad, spoiled or stems, parts that you were never going to use - everything goes into it. It is so simple, and it cuts down on our trash, that I can't understand why anybody wouldn't want to do it." WIDE VIEW OF STREET WITH BROWN FOOD SCRAPS BIN ON CURB CLOSE OF BROWN BIN NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (RECENT - JULY 25, 2017) (REUTERS) DIGESTER EGGS AT NEWTOWN CREEK WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT TRUCK DELIVERING FOOD WASTE TO PLANT SIGN ON FOOD WASTE TANK WORKERS HOOKING UP DELIVERY TRUCK TO FOOD WASTE TANK PIPE OF FOOD WASTE TANK DEPUTY COMMISSIONER NEW YORK CITY BUREAU OF WASTEWATER TREATMENT, PAM ELARDO, AND PLANT MANAGER, FRANK LONCAR, TALKING ELARDO EXPLAINING DIGESTER EGG (SOUNDBITE) (English) DEPUTY COMMISSIONER NEW YORK CITY BUREAU OF WASTEWATER TREATMENT, PAM ELARDO, SAYING: "Food waste is similar to the solids that you get at the waste water treatment plant. So we decided to try and augment our digesters using the food waste component. It's made into a slurry and it enters our digesters. We started the pilot project about two to three years ago. And right now we're taking about 60 tons per day of food waste into the digesters." FOOD WASTE TANK DIGESTER EGGS AND TANK (SOUNDBITE) (English) DEPUTY COMMISSIONER NEW YORK CITY BUREAU OF WASTEWATER TREATMENT, PAM ELARDO, SAYING: "When we add the food waste we found initially about a 10 percent increase. Which is kind of sustainable over time - at about 25 to 50 tons of food waste per day. This project, the pilot project, it's going to get us up to about 250 tons of food waste per day. So we're going to submit, substantially increase potentially the amount of methane we produce." CLOSE VIEW OF DIGESTER EGG GLASS CORRIDOR ON TOP OF DIGESTER EGG SIGNS ON HALLWAY PLATFORM ON TOP OF EGG (SOUNDBITE) (English) NEWTOWN CREEK WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT MANAGER, FRANK LONCAR, SAYING: "We're standing on top of one of our digester eggs. We have eight digester eggs here, and this tank is holding about 3 million gallons of a combination of biosolids - which comes from wastewater - and also food waste. It sits here on average for about 30 days, and during that process it's breaking down and we're creating methane gas." VARIOUS OF SLURRY AND GAS INSIDE EGG LONCAR SHOWING GAS PIPE GAS GAUGE LONCAR SAMPLING METHANE FROM DIGESTER EGG (SOUNDBITE) (English) DEPUTY COMMISSIONER NEW YORK CITY BUREAU OF WASTEWATER TREATMENT, PAM ELARDO, SAYING: "If we can get 500 tons per day here, which is our maximum, and we could get something half or similar at all the other plants, we can get thousands of tons a day for food waste. New York City produces 2,000 tons (food waste) per day residential and about the same commercial; that's 4,000 tons per day. Potentially this system, this solution, could take all the food waste." WIDE OF PLANT WITH BURNER VARIOUS OF BURNER ENTRANCE OF NEWTOWN CREEK WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (JULY 28, 2017) (REUTERS) SCHIWAL TURNING ON GAS STOVE SCHIWAL AND NORA COOKING CORN (SOUNDBITE) (English) BROOKLYN RESIDENT, SARA SCHIWAL, SAYING: "I think it is the coolest thing. I thought it was very nice, when I thought the city was taking it and composting it and using it for - and I don't know where I got this idea - but I came up with it I guess, that it was composted for the parks around the city. And it's not. It's being turned into gas that I can use on my gas stove. And it's just a cycle that I get to be a part of on the front end and on the back end. It's pretty incredible, I think." MORE OF STOVE BROOKLYN STREET WITH GARBAGE BINS
- Embargoed: 16th August 2017 18:31
- Keywords: Composting brown bin green energy waste water treatment plant Newtown Creek methane national grid
- Location: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
- City: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
- Country: USA
- Topics: Science
- Reuters ID: LVA0016SGSME3
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Brooklyn resident Sara Schiwal is among more than 2 million New Yorkers who have access to a brown bin.
The bins are part of the citywide curbside food scrap and yard waste collection program, already the largest in the United States.
Schiwal, who enjoys cooking with her two-year-old daughter Nora, said that recycling organics is much easier than she had originally thought.
"Everything, all food products - whether they are good, bad, spoiled or stems, parts that you were never going to use - everything goes into it. It is so simple, and it cuts down on our trash, that I can't understand why anybody wouldn't want to do it," she told Reuters.
Approximately one third of New York City waste is organic material - food scraps, food-soiled paper and yard waste. And while part of it is turned into compost that goes to local farms and landfills, an ongoing pilot project at Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant aims to turn it into biogas that ultimately will go back to residents to heat their stoves and homes.
"Food waste is similar to the solids that you get at the waste water treatment plant. So we decided to try and augment our digesters using the food waste component," explained Deputy Commissioner of Bureau of Wastewater Treatment Pam Elardo.
Newtown Creek is one of 14 wastewater treatment plants in New York, which has already produced 500 million cubic feet of biogas in its digesters from the solids collected from wastewater.
Inside the plant's eight digester eggs, sludge is placed in an oxygen-free environment, where it is heated to at least 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 degrees Celsius) for between 15 to 30 days. This stimulates the growth of anaerobic bacteria, which consume the organic material in the sludge. The digestion process stabilizes the thickened sludge by converting much of the material into water, carbon dioxide and biogas.
By adding pre-processed food waste, the production of biogas went up significantly, Elardo said.
"When we add the food waste we found initially about a 10 percent increase. Which is kind of sustainable over time - at about 25 to 50 tons of food waste per day. This project, the pilot project, it's going to get us up to about 250 tons of food waste per day. So we're going to submit, substantially increase potentially the amount of methane we produce."
At the plant approximately 40 percent of the methane is reused in boilers that provide heat for plant buildings and the digester eggs. The excess biogas is flared into the atmosphere, but with the partnership with National Grid, a major natural gas provider in the United States, this might soon change in the future.
National Grid is scheduled to build a purification center at Newtown Creek in the second part of 2017 that will get the biogas produced clean enough to go into the pipelines for residential and commercial use.
Elardo said that if the program is a success, the 14 wastewater treatment plants can process all the food waste of New York.
"If we can get 500 tons per day here, which is our maximum, and we could get something half or similar at all the other plants, we can get thousands of tons a day for food waste. New York City produces 2,000 tons (food waste) per day residential and about the same commercial; that's 4,000 tons per day. Potentially this system, this solution, could take all the food waste," she said.
More than 3 million New York City households will have access to a brown bin by the end of this year. And the combined projects have the potential to produce enough energy to heat nearly 5,200 New York City homes, reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by more than 90,000 metric tons - the equivalent of removing nearly 19,000 cars from the road. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2017. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
