The city of Dayton projects it will earn $800,000 a year by selling methane collected from its sewage — all while reducing its carbon footprint.
The city is one of the first in the country to create this type of renewable gas from its wastewater plant, Dayton Sustainability Manager Meg Maloney said.
“The nice thing about this project is it really is investing back into our water reclamation infrastructure, which will further help keep bills down for residents and also help with some of the improvements around the facility,” Maloney said.
The city signed a 20-year agreement with DTE Biomass Energy earlier this year to sell the natural gas from the city’s water reclamation facility.
The natural gas officially began flowing into a pipeline on Nov. 6. Now it can be used as an energy source to power the electricity grid.
The natural gas is a byproduct from the over 40 million gallons of sewage that flows into the city’s water reclamation plant daily.
It’s created through a process called anaerobic digestion. The sewage the city collects is processed by anaerobic microorganisms that create the biogas. That’s then turned into natural gas.
The facility is expected to produce enough biogas energy each year to supply natural gas to about 3,700 average homes in the Midwest, city water reclamation officials said.
The money generated from this project will increase the city’s water reclamation capital budget by 20%. The additional money can be used for equipment replacements, structural repairs, and upgrades to electrical and data management infrastructure.
Previously the city got rid of the gas with methane flaring. That involves burning it and releasing the resulting carbon dioxide into the air.
Due to the flaring, Maloney said the water reclamation facility made up about 50% of the city of Dayton’s carbon emissions.
“Honestly, before this project started, that was like our largest nut to crack, like ‘How do we actually reduce these emissions,’” Maloney said. “It's been a pretty proven technology on farms and landfills and has been used for a couple of decades with them, so I don't think there was any hesitancy about the process.”
