LIFE CAN BE A GAS

It seems that everything on Earth is to be blamed for causing alleged climate change, except for the Earth itself. The latest culprits? Birdbaths, small ponds and cows.

According to a recent report, small ponds are a significant contributor of methane gas and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.* In fact, a study found that small ponds produced a disproportionate greater amount of these emissions than large ponds and lakes. These higher amounts of gases are said to result from the higher amounts of carbon sediment, such as leaves and droppings, in small ponds together with their shallow nature.

Perhaps, this discovery suggests that EPA should regulate all small ponds and even birdbaths to mitigate climate change. After all, birdbaths can accumulate leaf litter, seeds and bird debris of all sorts, surely contributing to global warming gases.

Another report asserts that cows are responsible for 26% of U.S. methane emissions, an amount almost equal to the 29% produced by vehicles and the oil and gas industries.** A mid-sized cow produces about 150 kilograms of methane per year, and the U.S. has about 98 million cows roaming around. Do the math.

The bovine methane machine results from the unique ruminant digestion system, featuring a mult-chambered stomach housing unique microorganism activity, including methanogens which create methane. It appears that cow methane is released primarily by burps, followed in lesser degrees by cow patties (manure) and flatulence. Cow manure produces 10% of U.S. methane emissions.

Scientists are trying to reduce cow emissions by altering cow diet and breeding cleaner cows through genetic engineering and other experiments.

A related development has been to use cow manure to produce electricity by means of anaerobic digesters to capture methane gas. The gas then is burned to generate electricity or is cleaned, pressurized and transported into natural gas pipelines. However, interest by farmers in such manure-to-energy technology has declined for economic reasons.

What is the solution to these methane producers? Fill in all small ponds, prohibit birdbaths and raise cattle only at power plants, so that burps and patties can be fed directly into generators? All of this cries out for more federal grants.

At any rate, puddles have become muddles. And, as Groucho Marx said in "Duck Soup", "I could dance with you till the cows come home. Better still, I'll dance with the cows and you come home."

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*Shelton, "Small Ponds Produce An Outsized Share
Of Greenhouse Gases," Yale News, February 1, 2016

**Beil, "Greener Cows," Science News, November 28,
2015, p. 22

***Kesmodel, "Bull Market Fades For Manure Power,"
Wall Street Journal, February 19, 2016, p. B1

SALTY WORDS

Salt always has had importance in the United States. At the beginning of the 1800s, a prime source of salt in the fledgling new country was at the bottom of Illinois, along the Ohio River near the boundary with Indiana. Originally discovered and used by the native Indians, these salt deposits fell under the control of advancing frontiersmen. Indeed, mining the salt became quite profitable.* Thus, there is Saline County in Illinois, presumably named after salt. (As a sidebar, in the 1830s, a group of men from northern Illinois approached the bank in Shawneetown, then a bustling city in the salt area, for a loan to organize a city called Chicago. The bank turned down the loan request saying that Chicago would never amount to anything and had no future. In the 1930s, the Ohio River flooded and wiped out Shawneetown. The whole city moved up a hill and left behind what is now Old Shawneetown and the crumbling walls of a bank building.)

Today, the health effects of use of salt to flavor food continues to be controversial. However, quite a different controversy involves the use of salt in residential self-regenerating water softeners that discharge salty waste brine into the wastewater system.

This concern particularly exists in drought prone areas of the United States, such as California. Because of the scarcity of fresh water sources, utilities are under pressure to reuse or recycle treated wastewater. Obviously, salty recycled wastewater is not feasible for most purposes. However, conventional wastewater treatment plants are not able to adequately treat high salinity influent without installing costly advanced treatment technology.

Accordingly, in California, some municipalities enacted ordinances banning use of self-regenerating water softeners. Courts, however, rejected such ordinances on the ground that state law pre-empted local action. While there is no state ban, the legislature did enact a protocol that enables local bans when necessary to enable wastewater systems to comply with state effluent discharge standards (Assembly Bill 1366).**

Some cities now offer financial incentives to homeowners to remove their water softeners altogether or to replace them with so-called demand-initiated regeneration ion exchange softeners.

Interestingly, one method to reduce salinity levels in brine is through use of the reverse-osmosis process. A recent report states that salty water which does not pass through the membrane may be able to be harvested to run an electricity generation turbine. So, salt have have power.***

Obviously, not all sources of water--particularly well water--are of the same quality or of good quality. Often they contain high levels of naturally-occuring minerals that adversely affect taste, odor and color, producing scale in pipes and discoloring in appliances and laundered clothing. Accordingly, residential water softeners can be expected to remain in demand.

Over the years, some water utilities that tied to operate central softening equipment at their treatment plants found that the process could be unreliable, resulting in customer complaints, and removed such equipment from service.

From time to time, some have asserted that water softeners can have a negative impact on septic tanks. It has been reported that Texas has imposed a ban on water softeners that discharge to septic tanks, asserting that high salt brine can destroy beneficial bacteria. However, recent scientific reports have disputed this assumption and even have suggested that salt can be beneficial for the septic tank process.

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*Owens, "Isaac White And Manliness In Early Illinois,
Journal of Illinois History, Spring, 2014

**See"Stopping A Problem At Its Source",
WE&T Magazine, July, 2014, p.22

***"The New Power Of Salt Water", Wall Street Journal,
August 30-31, 2014, p.C-4

GOING PLACES WITH WATER

According to a recent report, astronauts' urination may enable them to go boldly where no human has gone before.* As space travel pushes toward new frontiers, researchers on earth are exploring potential new uses for the travelers' human waste, such as urine.

In particular, research is focusing on the urea bioelectrochemical system which uses "forward osmosis" to treat urine. According to the research, this system removes urea and converts it to ammonia. In turn, the ammonia is used as fuel in a direct solid alkaline fuel cell system to generate electrical energy.

The report indicates that this process has the potential for recycling urine into drinking water (with the addition of reverse osmosis) as well as electricity. Research is ongoing, and one of the issues yet to be resolved is developing a system that works under zero-gravity conditions found in space.

Who knows--maybe at some point in the distant future people on the go will travel in space in ships propelled by electricity generated by their own urine, illustrating another beneficial use, and need, for water.

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*"Waste Not, Want Not",WE&T Magazine
July,2014, p. 21

CRUISING DOWN THE ALIMENTARY CANAL

Ater reading the story, I did not know if I had entered the twilight zone or if I had become a passenger with Captain Kirk on the Starship Enterprise.

The story told of a new project in England to develop a stand alone device within a house that will turn human waste into drinking water and hydrogen energy to generate electricity. If the development is successful, researchers believe the device could be useful in both developing and developed countries. Indeed, one researcher is quoted as saying: "In the future, we may see homes in the UK generating their own clean water, energy and fertilizer simply by doing what comes naturally to us all once or twice day."

One can speculate that there may be several issues to be resolved. For example, how will the system work in the event that occupants of a house suffer from constipation? Will the residents thirst for water or sit in the dark, much as when a windmill stops churning without wind? Will dog walkers eagerly scoop and run home to throw collections into the hopper? Will water, wastewater and electric utilities close their doors for want of users?

I am still trying to get used to the new types of toilets dictated by the federal government that flush like an erupting volcano. I wonder if the federal government also will exert jurisdiction over these new devices and their source material. Regardless, maybe those ancient alchemists had the right idea after all...only the wrong stuff.

SEWAGE: POWER FROM THE PEOPLE

In the quest for alternative sources of energy, domestic wastewater-human sewage-is becoming an electricity magnet for researchers. In particular, gases and other waste products extracted from the wastewater treatment processes are being studied as means to generate electricity--by inclusion in fuel cells, by turning generators, etc. The objective is not confined to powering a treatment plant, but extends to adding electricity to the grid.

Even the mere flow in sewers is being looked at for production of hydro power. One inventor has come up with the idea of placing a small generator in a house sewer pipe. When a toilet is flushed, electricity would be generated to light the house or television set. However, such a concept may be practicable only during television commercial breaks or Super Bowl half time.

One researcher has estimated that one gallon of wastewater contains enough energy to light up a 100 watt bulb for 5 minutes. Unfortunately, federal law will prohibit production of 100 watt light bulbs after 2011.

Waste to energy is not a new idea. In the frontier west. pioneer homesteaders heated and cooked by burning buffalo chips. I recall a grade school science experiment by which electricity was produced from a potato. Now that the federal government wants to prohibit or limit the serving of potatoes in government subsidized school lunch programs, perhaps potatoes could be used to generate electricity for the grid instead of the griddle.

Using wastewater as an energy source perhaps should be tempered by some reality. It takes energy to build and operate a wastewater treatment plant and tributary sewer mains. Perhaps a more efficient wastewater energy source is the old fashioned outhouse. It requires minimal energy to build. While it does not generate electricity, it also does not use electricity. By saving electricity, it reduces demand on the grid. Has technology gone full circle?