I recently had the pleasure of sitting next to EPA Deputy Regional Administrator, Ira Leighton, on a flight from Washington to Boston. We had a great discussion of the emerging technologies the EPA is using to create green, sustainable infrastructure.
You'll find an overview of their energy management techniques online, highlighting numerous regional efforts.
Massachusetts leads the way in many demonstration projects, creating zero energy waste water treatment plants. What does that mean?
Using specialized energy efficient pumps and values, photovoltaic solar energy sources, and wind power, these treatment plants are completely energy and carbon neutral.
If plants which treat wastewater via anaerobic digestion captured the Biogas released (mostly methane), an additional 340 megawatts of power could be generated.
Carbon neutral, energy neutral, water treatment that could even become an energy source via Biogas production. That's cool!
I always love your "Cool Tech" posts: there's a lot of exciting innovation happening out there. Waste treatment becoming energy efficient (or even productive) across the country would be a huge step forward in helping out communities, not just in environmental but economical ways as well.
ReplyDeleteI decided to take it easy over at the Occam PM blog today with some cool tech as well: robots and bionic eyes. If nothing else, you should check out this Japanese virtual reality interface: that robot looks straight out of science fiction!