City takes step to covert sewage sludge into electricity

CEDAR RAPIDS - The city is moving ahead on a proposal to turn sewage sludge into electricity.

The City Council last night gave Pat Ball, the city's utilities director, the go ahead to refine plans that would replace the outdated, flood-damaged incinerator at the city's huge Water Pollution Control facility with a new, larger incinerator capable of burning sludge to produce electricity.

Ball gave the council five different options tied to the need to replace the incinerator, which is back in operation since the flood with a temporary fix.

One option, which would build a system capable of turning both sewage sludge and municipal garbage into energy, would cost $250 million more than simply building a larger capacity replacement incinerator that would not convert sludge to energy.

Building the larger capacity incinerator that coverts sewage sludge to energy will cost $14.2 million more than the $55.2-million the incinerator otherwise would cost, Ball explained.

Ball also provided information about building an incinerator to serve what is left of the flood-damaged, steam pipeline system in the downtown, but council member Tom Podzimek noted, without objection, that most entities that had been on the steam system have left it and found other energy solutions.

Ball said the city has spent six months looking at waste-to-energy options.

Council member Justin Shields asked Ball about a technology known as plasma arc, which can zap garbage and other waste and convert it into energy. Shields noted that there is a local group of plasma-arc enthusiasts. The city of Marion has used a state grant to study the technology.

Ball said the Cedar Rapids study looked at plasma arc and gasification technologies, but he said, “They just didn't make the cut.” He said plasma arc had not proven to be “economically feasible” to date.

Ball noted that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has said it would provide the city $37.7 million to replace the flood-damaged incinerator with one of a similar capacity.

However, Ball noted that the city needs a larger one than the 30-year-old one it had before the flood. The larger incinerator will cost an estimated $17.5 million more that what FEMA will pay. The cost goes up another $14.2 million if the incinerator is designed to convert sludge into energy.

Ball noted that FEMA is expected to pay the city an estimated $13.8 million to use on differernt project because for the city can't replace its flood-damaged hydroelectric facility at the base of the 5-in-1 dam. The $13.8 million could be used on the incinerator project, Ball noted.

A waste-to-energy incinerator at the Water Pollution Control facility would provide an amount of electricity equivalent to about half of the energy needs of the plant, Ball reported.