Firm turns sewage into energy

PHILADELPHIA » Among the many renewable energy sources — wind, solar, hydroelectric, biofuels — there is one to which we all contribute that has not yet managed to attract romantic advocates who have embraced other forms of green energy: sewage.

A Philadelphia company, NovaThermal Energy LLC, wants to heat and cool buildings by tapping into the constant, guaranteed heat contained in wastewater. The process is called sewage geothermal.

"It’s just like geothermal energy, but we’re using a different well source, so to speak," said Elinor Haider, NovaThermal’s chief executive.

Public officials cut the ribbon last week on NovaThermal’s first proj­ect, a pilot plant at Philadelphia’s Southeast Wastewater Treatment Plant, near the Walt Whitman Bridge. NovaThermal is planning to install a second, commercial-size proj­ect later this year at a sewage treatment plant in Camden, N.J.

Haider said the initial proj­ects are at treatment plants only because they are public buildings with abundant sources of wastewater. But, she added, the company plans to market its patented Chinese technology to any large building located near a major sewer trunk line that contains a steady flow of wastewater still warm from its previous use.