Proceedings

In response to growing opposition to agricultural land application of biosolids, several Southern California wastewater agencies supported the development of a regional facility to process biosolids into a renewable fuel. The Rialto, California facility incorporating EnerTech Environmental’s patented SlurryCarb™ technology has been described in previous papers.

Construction of the facility is nearing completion and EnerTech will begin start-up testing in October 2008. Within the past twelve months, the mass and energy balance for the final design of the Rialto
facility shows it will produce a renewable fuel containing almost twice as much energy value as required to produce it. In addition, the carbon dioxide emissions from this facility will be about 65% less than a thermal dryer of comparable size, while the E-Fuel produced will displace about 88,000 tons per year of carbon dioxide from coal combustion.

This paper will briefly describe the SlurryCarb™ process, the latest Rialto mass and energy balance1, a simplified Rialto carbon emission analysis, the latest Rialto construction status, and the Rialto start-up schedule.

KEY WORDS
Biosolids, Carbon Dioxide, E-Fuel, Global Warming Gases, Renewable Fuel, SlurryCarb™