Waste to Energy

Califia will likely be designed grid-interconnected city within the metropolis. The goal would be to produce a surplus of renewable energy which could then be sold to PG&E or other local utility.

Daniel Bowers notes that when dealing with people there is no shortage of refuse! Whether it be solid or liquid it comes in all shapes and sizes. The idea of sustainability has forced us to reexamine the idea of waste. New we see the emerging reality that past waste problems are really opportunities to recycle resources or extract energy from waste (waste to energy).

There are various options that could be considered in the development of a local energy economy that is striving towards self-reliance:

1. Plasma Waste to Energy Recovery Systems - There are various plasma waste treatment companies that use a plasma field to superheat all types of waste. The advantage of such a system is that it does not require sorting of waste or any worries about the mixing of volitile and hazardous chemicals into the waste flow that might hinder waste recovery and recycling of biowaste streams. The result is hydrogen rich gas that can be used to power fuel cells. Geoplasma is one example of a company developing this technology.
2. Biorefinery Gasification Model - Most biorefineries utilize an alcohol based design that produces liquid fuels. However Eprida's Waste to energy system is gasification system which can use either hydrocarbons or biocrops as well as residues (such as peanuts) as a feedstock. The Eprida biorefinery system is still in R&D stage. When fully developed that it will be able to produce a variety of useful byproducts in addition to pure hydrogen (to run a fuel cell) including ammonia and char that can be used as fertilizer.
3. Wind - Wind now is in some areas competitive with diesel, natural gas and even coal. There are several areas in the Bay Area that currently produce wind including Alamont pass in the Sunol/Livermore area.
4. Integrated Waste Management - Some systems even recycle waste producing multiple benefits: processing waste, providing clean water for irrigation and drinking, energy and fertiziler. The Integrated Farming & Waste Management System is a similar to a Living Machine. It is feasible to consider that a modified IF&WMS could eventually generate 30% or more of the sites energy needs as part of an industrial ecology taking waste from the SF Bay Area. This would include using a methane digester that converts waste effluent from the bakery, brewery, greenhouse and sewage system into biogas. The biogas can then be used to generate electricity using a fuel cell.
5. Concentrated Solar Power - Consentrated Solar Power (CSP) involves a system of mirrors or reflective devices to concentrate the suns rays towards a central collector. The heat is then converted into gas that either expands a a bladder in a stirling engine as used in CSP dish module (particularly suited for distribed power systems)or a steam turbine in a power tower or a parabolic system.

Combined Heating and Power

In addition a combined heating and power system using trigeneration could have a level of efficiency as high as 95%. When renewables like Concentrated Solar Power, biofuel and Waste to Energy systems are designed as part of a distributed power microgrid, the costs can be further reduced because of the higher conversiona efficencies, that allow the utilization of heat from the process that converts the fuel into energy.

Renewable Energy for Tranportation

Considering that some fleet of vehicles would be required, we might consider the best way to renewably power these vehicles. Biogas or the hydrogen from a Eprida type of gasification process could be used to power vehicles. This would require vehicles being converted to a vaporous fuel system instead of liquid fuel. The biogas would also need to be processed. Another option would involve the use of battery power vehicles.