Talk about novel ways to use waste. San Jose has embarked on a $20 million project to turn the remnants of human waste — what usually ends up as sewage sludge in landfills — into 900,000 gallons of biogas.
The groundbreaking project, which still needs regulatory approvals, will be built on a 40-acre site near a fallow landfill. It is the first North American biogas venture to use bio-solids (that is, human waste) from a waste treatment operation.
The aim of the project is to boost waste diversion, cut emissions, phase-out dependence on imported energy and create clean-tech job. Essentially, 150,000 metric tons of human waste will be turned into biogas and fertilizer.
This is not particularly new — for centuries, farmers spread “night soil” on the ground. Worldwide, 3.5 to 4.5 million hectares of land are irrigated with human waste. But much of that waste is raw sewage, not even processed or composted.
Behind the project are three companies, including one backed by venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins.