The city of Gainesville is embarking on an effort to see if biogas from a wastewater treatment facility can be harnessed for a useful purpose.
"Biogas can be used readily in all applications designed for natural gas such as direct combustion including absorption heating and cooling, cooking, space and water heating, drying, and gas turbines," a web post from University of Florida Bioenergy and Sustainability School website stated.
On Tuesday, the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority awarded Gainesville a grant of $25,000 for a feasibility study. It was one of three local governments in the state to get money through the Biogas Technical Assistance Program.
"This is a grant to do an assessment to see if we can use gas produced at the wastewater treatment plant for some useful purpose," Linda MacGregor, Director, Gainesville Department of Water Resources said.
The study applies to the Flat Creek Water Reclamation Facility.
"It's a desktop study that we're going to do, to see if we would generate enough of the right kind of gas that it would be cost-effective to do this," MacGregor said.
Any use of the facility to reclaim biogas would require modifications, according to MacGregor. She said there actually some public wastewater facilities that are into the commercial end of biogas. If the numbers are right, it could be a self-financing or even possibly a profitable venture for the local government.
If the study comes back and indicates the process would be viable at the location, MacGregor said it would then be a local decision on whether or not to move forward.
"There are loan dollars available, which we might take advantage of under the right circumstances, but we have cash in our capital account, so we would probably first look to do that."
The GEFA grant reimburses 75 percent of the cost of the study, up to the maximum amount of $25,000. The authority hosted a workshop last October to provide information to organizations about the new program.
The Brunswick-Glynn County Joint Water and Sewer Commission and DeKalb County, Department of Watershed Management were the other two grant recipients.
AccessWDUN's Marc Eggers contributed to this story.
