Recycled sewer gas to power buses

The city of Lincoln is planning on putting its sanitary sewer system to work hauling residents around town.

Actually, methane gas from sewers is at work in Lincoln, running generators to produce 40 to 60 percent of a digester plant's electric power.

Those generators are 25 years old, however, and ready for replacement at an estimated cost of $7 million.

Instead, the city is looking at spending $10.5 million for equipment to clean and compress the gas for use as a biofuel.

That fuel, in turn, would go to StarTran, to fuel buses running on compressed natural gas.

The city bus line already has 13 buses running on CNG, and plans to purchase seven more in the next year, on the way to having half of its 80-vehicle fleet running on the alternative fuel in the near future.

Similar waste-to-fuel systems are at use in other cities, and the Lincoln plans include construction of a $1.7 million fueling facility near the wastewater treatment plant.

Officials say the new system would generate up to $1 million worth of fuel a year, at a lower, stable cost to the city bus line.

McCook doesn't have a bus line, but we do have a sewage plant and because we closed our landfill, we spend a lot for diesel fuel to haul our solid waste to a disposal site near Ogallala.

And, at one time, we had police cars that were fueled by natural gas.

We might not have the scale to make alternative energy systems like that planned for Lincoln viable here. But when it comes time to make major investments in replacing existing infrastructure, it will make sense to check into all the options.