Los Angeles to turn human waste into electricity

 

LOS ANGELES, Apr 5, 2007 -- Comtex

 

Construction began Thursday on a power plant near the Port of Los Angeles that is to turn human waste into enough electricity to power 3,000 homes, officials said.

"This renewable energy project is pioneering the use of new technologies to convert biosolids into green, renewable energy, giving us a cleaner environment and producing economic benefits in the millions," Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said at the ground- breaking ceremony.

"It's green and it will earn us green," he told a crowd of city officials and environmental activists who were on hand to break ground for the Terminal Island Renewable Energy project.

The project calls for placing so-called "biosolids" in depleted oil and gas reservoirs more than a mile beneath the city's Terminal Island Plant.

The waste will emit methane gas, which will be burned to generate electricity, according the Los Angeles Public Works Department.

The process will also produce carbon dioxide, but up to 82,000 tons of the greenhouse gas will remain trapped below ground, according to the department.

When completed, the facility is expected to produce about 3.5 megawatts of electricity, which is enough to power 3,000 homes for a year, valued at about 2.4 million dollars, according to the department.

Terralong Technologies USA developed the project with input from the Public Works Department.

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