Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Green energy project one of two to win national prize
$250K prize will aid conversion of sewage plant into self-sustaining energy producer
PHOENIXVILLE » The borough is one of only two municipalities nationwide to be chosen for a $250,000 “Water Resource Recovery Prize” from the U.S. Department of Energy for its efforts to convert wastewater into energy.
The other project to win a prize is in the state of Washington.
Phoenixville borough has partnered with a company called SoMax BioEnergy on a transformation of its wastewater treatment plant aimed at “converting biosolids and local food wastes to efficiently create renewable energy that powers their wastewater treatment and creates excess energy that will be used to reach their goal of using 100 percent renewable energy by 2035,” according to the Department of Energy.
“The designs these teams came up with could revolutionize how wastewater treatment plants process sewage, agricultural runoff and more,” according to the announcement from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. “It could not only save money but also rescue valuable resources that are currently lost.”
“Throughout our history, Phoenixville Borough has always led the way on game changing technology,” Phoenixville Borough Council President Jonathan Ewald said in a press release announcing the prize.
“I, along with my colleagues on borough council, are extremely proud to continue this tradition of innovation by building the infrastructure of tomorrow, today. This system represents an important step in municipal government innovation that improves the local environment, lessens the borough’s long-term dependence on fossil fuel energy, and improves the overall efficiency of taxpayer money. It is my hope that the SoMax project represents the first of many regional infrastructure improvement projects that are built with the best interest of future generations in mind,” Ewald said.
The $250,000 award will help advance the next stage of a cutting-edge water recovery platform, which is scheduled to be online by the first quarter of 2022, according to Ewald.
In 2017, Phoenixville became the first community in Pennsylvania and the 44th in the country to adopt the “Ready for 100 Pledge,” with a goal of transitioning completely to clean energy by 1035. Of all the borough’s assets, the wastewater treatment plant is the single largest consumer of energy, Ewald said in a video produced about the project.
The carbon-neutral energy the SoMax process will produce is 150 percent of the plant’s current demand and the technology is easily replicated across the country, Ewald said.
“The process being pioneered by SoMax Bio Energy uses a “process called hydrothermal carbonization, a chemical process that mimics nature’s million-year-long method of creating brown coal and converts biomass (like local
food waste) into renewable fuel in just a few hours,” according to the National Resources Recovery Laboratory.
“The hydrothermal carbonization concept here in North America started with the Borough partnering with SoMax BioEnergy,” Phoenixville Borough Manager E. Jean Krack said in the press release.
“Borough Council authorized over $3 million in funding to make the necessary
changes at the wastewater treatment plant and add the new equipment necessary to begin the proof of concept for treating wastewater. This was followed by support from our Chester County Commissioners with a $402,000 grant and the Commonwealth with $650,000 in additional grant funding through the H2O Program,” Krack said. “This prize award is an amazing acknowledgement that Phoenixville is now being recognized on a national scale by the Department of Energy.”
“This endorsement from the DOE increases the confidence SoMax BioEnergy has that our technology is ready for adoption and replication at municipal wastewater treatment plants throughout the U.S. to decarbonize an essential service critical to human and environmental health,” said Dan Spracklin, Founder and CEO at SoMax Circular Solutions.
“I was more than happy to help by supporting their application. I’m overjoyed to know that this one-of-akind project will continue to grow,” U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-6th Dist., said in a press release issued by her office.