Stamford Gets a Federal Grant for More Innovations at its Innovative Sewage Treatment Plant

Stamford has gotten a grant to burn sludge at its sewage plant and convert the heat into enough electricity to operate the plant and power 4,000 houses. From the Stamford Advocate:

The system would convert wet sludge into dry fuel pellets, then burn the pellets to power a steam turbine generator, which would generate 5 megawatts of electricity -- enough to power the sewage treatment facility and 4,000 homes. …

The sewage treatment plant uses less than 1 megawatt, which costs about $1 million per year, Brown said. The remaining power could be sold to energy companies and reduce the city's dependence on power transmitted from other sites, she said.

Converting the sludge into pellets at the sewage plant would eliminate the need to truck out more than 4,000 tons of wet sludge every year. Trucking the sludge costs $1.2 million per year, Brown said.

Brown is Jeanette Semon Brown, the innovative head of Stamford's Water Pollution Control Authority. Representative Christopher Shays secured the money as part of an energy and water bill.