Morrisville Using Tech To Create Energy From Waste

MORRISVILLE, PA — A new agreement signed by the Morrisville Municipal Authority will use state-of-the-art technology to turn solid waste into energy.

The authority, which serves customers in Morrisville, Yardley and parts of Lower Makefield, signed the deal with Ecoremedy, LLC, a supplier of advanced resource recovery solutions. The new program, according to officials, will reduce the environmental and financial cost of biosolids management.

Every year, the authority's wastewater treatment facility processes about 5,000 wet tons of organic biosolids, which currently are hauled to a landfill for disposal.

As part of the design for a new treatment facility, which will replace the aging facility on Riverview Avenue, the authority says it recognized a need for a solution that would reduce the impact of managing biosolids.

Ecoremedy's "fluid lift gasification" system uses a process to convert biosolids and other waste material into syngas, a 100% renewable source of thermal energy that replaces natural gas. According to the company, Ecoremedy's process recovers all available energy in the biosolids, without the need for additive like wood chips.

The thermal energy is used to evaporate moisture from biosolids to produce high-quality dried solids, a valuable form of activated carbon called biochar, or nutrient-rich ash. The process reduces the solids’ volume by up to 90%, dramatically reducing the costs and potential environmental impacts of landfill disposal while also recovering valuable energy and resources.

"A primary goal for the new wastewater treatment facility is to incorporate state-of-the-
art technology for resource recovery and renewable energy production," said John Warenda, executive director of the Morrisville Municipal Authority. "By conducting a full-scale demonstration of Ecoremedy’s technology for functional integration with the new facility, the MMA expects to see an immediate impact toward meeting those goals without any cost increase to ratepayers."

Ecoremedy President Dave Mooney said he was equally excited about the opportunities for the project.

"For nearly a decade, our advanced Fluid Lift Gasification technology has converted
manure-based materials from agricultural applications into clean energy and value-
added products," Mooney said.

"The Morrisville project will demonstrate a completely sustainable, full-scale, inside-the-fence, end-to-end solution for converting biosolids into renewable clean energy while simultaneously reducing the community’s total carbon footprint. This project is actually capable of processing five times more biosolids than Morrisville produces each year."

"With a modular design where multiple units can operate in parallel, we can scale up our process to serve large population centers."

Design and construction of the Morrisville Demonstration Project is already underway.

The facility is expected to go online in mid-2019. Once completed, Ecoremedy and the
Morrisville Municipal Authority have additional plans to use the facility for cutting-edge
research and development.

Photos courtesy Ecoremedy, LLC