There will necessarily be some crudities in this one because they often say it best and, besides, we enjoy crudities. This one is specifically about turning shit into shinola since we will harvest the sewage people flush away to create high-quality biocrude oil. (Science Daily: Fuel from sewage is the future -- and it's closer than you think)
Read the article for the specifics but one key element from it is the estimate each person produces enough sewage to generate two or three gallons of biocrude per year.
Ed: no chance you can fuel the Rock City with that. Will you import it?
You think you make comedy but why not. Many people will opt to stay on the ground level for whatever reasons and they will still need sewer services. Instead of the traditional approach of trying to purify it to return it in an unnatural state (i.e. sterilized) to the environment, channel that raw sewage instead to our biocrude treatment plant and use all of it.
Ed: there will still be some kind of waste or slag leftover so there's still a pollution problem.
In fact, there isn't as the scientists anticipate processing everything to recycle the lot of it.
"If this emerging technology is a success, a future production facility could lead the way for Metro Vancouver's wastewater operation to meet its sustainability objectives of zero net energy, zero odours and zero residuals," Mussatto added.
In addition to the biocrude, the liquid phase can be treated with a catalyst to create other fuels and chemical products. A small amount of solid material is also generated, which contains important nutrients. For example, early efforts have demonstrated the ability to recover phosphorus, which can replace phosphorus ore used in fertilizer production.
Read the article for the specifics but one key element from it is the estimate each person produces enough sewage to generate two or three gallons of biocrude per year.
Ed: no chance you can fuel the Rock City with that. Will you import it?
You think you make comedy but why not. Many people will opt to stay on the ground level for whatever reasons and they will still need sewer services. Instead of the traditional approach of trying to purify it to return it in an unnatural state (i.e. sterilized) to the environment, channel that raw sewage instead to our biocrude treatment plant and use all of it.
Ed: there will still be some kind of waste or slag leftover so there's still a pollution problem.
In fact, there isn't as the scientists anticipate processing everything to recycle the lot of it.
"If this emerging technology is a success, a future production facility could lead the way for Metro Vancouver's wastewater operation to meet its sustainability objectives of zero net energy, zero odours and zero residuals," Mussatto added.
In addition to the biocrude, the liquid phase can be treated with a catalyst to create other fuels and chemical products. A small amount of solid material is also generated, which contains important nutrients. For example, early efforts have demonstrated the ability to recover phosphorus, which can replace phosphorus ore used in fertilizer production.
- Science Daily
Ed: the idea of imported shit is just a wee bit flimsy, not to mention utterly disgusting.
It's all according to the principle of Maximum Use of Available Resources. There will be sewage from the surface which has no particular place to go so it seems an environmental responsibility to process that too, particularly when there's a useful product which comes from it.
The bigger problem than where to get enough sewage is what to do with petroleum products since there is vastly less need for those types of products in the Rock City than elsewhere because it is mostly driven by electricity.
Ed: therefore the Rock City exports the oil?
Welcome to Rock City capitalism, laddie.
Ed: what a load of highly hypocritical spew from the Rock City when it's posted as the best thing ever to happen to environmentalism while at the same time it aspires to be just another huckster for decadent fuel oil products.
This is yer reality sci fi, laddie, since the autonomous big rig trucks won't be running as electric vehicles any time soon. Therefore, supplying the diesel fuel they need serves a clear and useful purpose since that supply chain is vital to national distribution.
Even if no sewage is imported from the ground level, there will still be a viable commercial product resulting from the (cough) efforts of a million people in the Rock City since that should result in two to three million gallons of biocrude annually. That translates to dollars and a whole lot of miles for big rig trucks.
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