May 27 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Rory Sweeney The Times Leader, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.


Originally, the request -- though odd -- was right up Bruce Bruso's alley. When the late state Sen. Jim Rhoades asked him to devise a use for ever-increasing supplies of sewage sludge, Bruso fell back on his years of experience with soils and immediately thought fertilizer.

But as Bruso dug deeper, he found something interesting. Not only could the often-polluted sludge be cleaned, but, dried enough, it also burned remarkably well. His focus changed from a soil additive to a potential fuel that could reduce air pollution.

Now he believes he's come across a way to solve two problems: keeping coal cheap and viable in the coming clean-energy future and finding a use for the sludge.

Millions of tons of biosolids are created annually, "and that keeps growing every year," Bruso said. Dealing with it is often one of municipalities' greater struggles, and Rhoades had come to Bruso's Hegins-based CBA Environmental, with its 16 years of pollution-remediation experience, to suggest something other than spreading it on croplands.

The idea for an energy source formed with increasing political interest in less-polluting alternatives to fossil fuels, such as coal, oil and natural gas. Bruso's tinkering resulted in nine patents, five more pending and a product that has some energy companies interested: inert, few metals, no bacteria, reasonably high energy potential. "It's very similar to wood chips," he said.

In a machine of Bruso's own design, the sludge is mixed with a chemical slurry in a vat, then the liquid is squeezed out in a press and recycled back to the vat while the dry, decontaminated remainder is dried further with heat.

As part of the slurry, the sludge is treated with chemicals that will help it "scrub" out the air pollutants that coal plants create. When mixed with coal and burned, the dusty, dirt-like, almost-completely organic fuel releases reactants that bond with the polluting compounds in the burned emissions -- such as nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides -- making them inert compounds heavy enough to fall back into the ash.

Bruso calls it a "scrubber assist" since it won't replace the multi-million-dollar scrubber stacks used at massive coal plants, but it will help -- and it's renewable. Combined with another technology Bruso's engineered to "wash" coal of impurities, making it emit less pollution and burn more efficiently -- as much as 75 percent better, he reports.

"If you take 90 percent coal, 10 percent biosolids, great combination," he said. "You've reduced almost 100 percent of pollutants."

Interest exists on both sides, he said -- from facilities interested in depositing solids and energy companies interested in acquiring the fuel -- but the problem has been securing money to build a full-sized plant for about $10 million.

"The sad truth about it is that cities, towns and boroughs have the ability to generate their own fuel, but everybody's stuck in a rut," he said.

George Lewis, a spokesman for PPL Inc., was unaware of Bruso's work, but said it might help smaller plants where scrubbers aren't financially advantageous.

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