"So, we get the benefit of basically utilizing energy from the sewer that would have just been wasted or not used at all," Fangman said. "And then keep not only greenhouse gases but also water conservation for the system."

While this technology is quite new to the U.S., Fangman says it's been used in Western Europe for more than a decade and in Canada for at least five years. The facility in Denver will serve as a model for systems that can be created in metro areas all over the country.

> "This system, when it's fully built out, will save the equivalent of 6.6 passenger miles of CO2 out of the air annually," Fangman said.

That's not much. Hope it does not cost too many tens of billions of $.

Someone must have done the cost effectiveness calculations right?

Right?

Wait…. 6.6 passenger miles of CO2…?

…that’s it?

How many passenger miles is it going to take to engineer, manufacture, ship, assemble, run, maintain and eventually tear down and recycle/destroy this failure of a system?

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It's just more proof that Americans will use anything other than the metric system for no good reason.

Still waiting on that magic bullet huh LOL

Awesome, every little bit helps. Throw this in every god damn building built moving forward. Assuming there are studies from places in the world where this has been done for a decade and there are no safety concerns.

Everything in the universe can be used for energy, whether or not it's efficient in any way is a different story.

Sounds like they recover the energy quite far down the line when they talk about sewage being 70F degrees, not much left to recover by that time. It's already mixed with solid waste and cold sewage, energy is lost to surrounding soil etc. But if at apartment building level you had a system that separated out hot water from sinks, baths etc and let it heat the building before going down the drain, that could be quite significant. It's a lot more complicated pipework of course, but if you plan it from the get-go, it would probably pay itself off easily enough.

Obvious journalistic screwup, you can get 6.6 passenger miles a year out of a hamster wheel.

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I think the macerator is key, though, else the system would get clogged very quickly.

The following submission statement was provided by /u/EnergyTransitionNews:

"So, we get the benefit of basically utilizing energy from the sewer that would have just been wasted or not used at all," Fangman said. "And then keep not only greenhouse gases but also water conservation for the system."

While this technology is quite new to the U.S., Fangman says it's been used in Western Europe for more than a decade and in Canada for at least five years. The facility in Denver will serve as a model for systems that can be created in metro areas all over the country.

Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/zy8civ/your_wastewater_can_be_used_as_renewable_energy/j24ab7a/

I’m on the toilet making a massive energy donation right now

Ok so it uses a heat exchanger to heat water and then distributes it to the customers who have water heaters? I guess it could save a little energy but foregoing this process and investing in biodigestion makes way more sense. Not to mention drinking water plants and wastewater treatment plants aren't typically connected like this...

Skip to biodivestion and use the energy from that for electricity and not just hot water. Several wastewater plants have done this and power their entire plants and have leftover energy to sell back to the grid.

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Red Green joked about adding water wheels into the sewer system one episode on handyman's corner. I always said that crackpot was a damn genius

Idk, magic bullets sound expensive. I'm sure parent would do the economically sensible thing and allow themselves to be eaten by the werewolf.

Every little bit helps.