Scientists at the University of California, Riverside are
developing a way of converting "wet waste," such as sewage
sludge and grass clippings, into synthetic diesel fuel and
electricity in a move that could potentially reduce the need for
landfill space and provide a cost-effective alternative to
increasingly restricted land application. The research, funded
by Riverside Public Utilities and Eastern Municipal Water
District, is being overseen by Colin Hackett, manager of the
Alternative Fuels and Renewable Energy Program at UCR. The
program is housed in the Bourns College of Engineering - Center
for Environmental Research and Technology (CE-CERT). Hackett,
who also supervises graduate students at CE-CERT, has extensive
experience in fuels, energetics and thermodynamics. He said he
hopes to have a scale model of the new process up and running
this month. If the testing phase is successful, a full-scale
demonstration unit could be produced and operating by 2004.
"Productively managing the growing streams of w